Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

FRIDAY NIGHT: Cloudy, moderate wind out of the west, alpine temperatures drop to -16 C.SATURDAY: Local valley cloud, alpine high temperatures around -10 C, light wind out of the west, light flurries possible overnight into Sunday.SUNDAY: Scattered cloud cover, alpine high temperatures around -6 C, moderate to strong wind out of the southwest.MONDAY: Cloudy, alpine high temperatures around -4 C, strong wind out of the west.

Recent avalanche activity has been limited to a few small wind slabs and loose dry avalanches mostly in steep alpine terrain.The last notable avalanche reported was a size 2 human triggered avalanche on Sunday in Cornice Bowl north of Fernie. It occurred on a northwest facing feature at 2300 m and ran on a crust in the lower snowpack. There are good photos in this MIN report.If you're in the backcountry and have observations to share, please post to the Mountain Information Network (MIN).

Early season conditions prevail in this region with roughly 100 cm of snow in alpine areas and much less at lower elevations. Surface conditions range from soft power, hard wind slab, and some sun crusts.The main concern is the snowpack is a combination of weak sugary snow and crusts in the bottom half of the snowpack. See the snow profile in our field team's MIN report here for a visual representation of the snowpack. The crust is most prevalent at and above treeline and is likely most problematic on north-facing features, especially those that are large and planar in nature.