Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain

A few centimetres of snow are expected on Monday, before a shift to a cool, dry spell. Expect light northerly winds and a mix of sun and cloud on Tuesday and Wednesday.For more details check out http://www.avalanche.ca/weather.

On Wednesday, two skier accidental avalanches were reported in the Golden backcountry. The first occurred in the morning and was a size 2 wind slab avalanche which occurred on a northwest aspect at about 2400 m. It was up to 50 cm in depth and ran approximately 600 m. The second occurred in the afternoon and was a size 2.5 wind slab at ridgetop. This also occurred on a NW aspect at 2400 m elevation. This avalanche stepped down to a deeper layer lower down in the start zone, likely the early December interface. On Thursday, a large settlement was felt in a flat meadow in the Invermere backcountry. This occurred at 2200 m in a below treeline terrain feature and the failure layer is unknown. Since then, only small loose dry avalanches have been observed.

20-30 cm of low-density snow typically overlies a well-settled mid and lower snowpack. Surface hoar and near-surface facets may be mingled with a few cm dry new snow. Wind slabs may be found on slopes lee to the SW. Between 40 and 100 cm below the surface you'll probably find a weak layer which was buried in early December. Between 1400 m and 1800 m, this layer consists primarily of large surface hoar. At higher elevations, this layer consists of a sun crust, facets, and/or small surface hoar. This layer is still reactive in some snowpack tests and has produced at least one human-triggered avalanche in the last week. The layer is creating a low probability, high consequence type of problem, especially in the north of the region. Below this layer, the snowpack is thought to be generally strong and well-settled.