Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Monday Night: Only trace amounts of new snow expected overnight.Tuesday: 4-8 cm new snow expected with moderate southwesterly winds. Freezing level rising to around 600 m at the end of the day. A further 10-20 cm possible Tuesday night. Wednesday: Flurries. Moderate northwesterly winds. Freezing level around 1200 m.Thursday: Light snow, 2-4 cm. Strong southwesterly winds. Freezing level rising to around 1400 m.

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 was a size 2 human triggered avalanche on December 2nd in Cornice Bowl north of Fernie. It occurred on a northwest facing feature at 2300 m and ran on a crust layer. There are good photos in this MIN report.

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, to hard wind slab, and some sun crusts.See the snow profile in our field team's MIN report for a visual representation of the snowpack here. The main concern is a combination of weak facets and crusts in the bottom half 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. A layer of large surface hoar can also be found at similar depths in some areas, as found in a recent MIN report here.