South Rockies

Wind slabs continue to be a concern at higher elevations. In some areas wind slabs may be sitting on a weak layer of facetted snow.

Moderate - Freezing levels are uncertain on Friday

The recent stormy pattern that December begat is history, and we enter a new meteorological regime marked by remarkable stability and an almost complete void of storminess over B.C for the next week. Warm Pacific air riding over the entrenched Arctic airmass currently in place is expected to lead to warm alpine temperatures beginning Friday. THURSDAY: Freezing level at valley bottom, light variable winds, no precipitation. FRIDAY: Freezing level at valley bottom, above freezing temperatures between 1700 and 3000m, no precipitation. SATURDAY: Freezing level at valley bottom, above freezing temperatures between 1700 and 2700m, no precipitation.

No new avalanche activity to report from the last 3 days.. On Sunday a group of sledders triggered or remotely triggered a slab avalanche size 2.0 about 2km south of Castle Mountain that resulted in one rider deploying his airbag and being partially buried. More details here: https://bit.ly/1TqhuQf

Our field team was in the Smith Basin and Mear Lakes area on Monday. They reported 110-150 cm of snow on the ground at 2250 metres. There was 40 cm of loose dry snow above 10 cm of cold facets that produced variable moderate to hard shears in snowpack tests. The storm snow is unconsolidated and the field team remarked that even the small larch trees still had new snow on them; evidence of very little in the way of wind. They did not get direct alpine observations, but suspect that there may be more wind effect at higher elevations. These observations are consistent with reports from near Castle Mountain with storm snow above facets.