Purcells

Conditions are variable across the Purcells. In isolated areas, a persistent weak layer may still be reactive to human triggers. Take the time to investigate your local snowpack.

Moderate

A cool, dry spell is starting. Expect light northerly winds, a mix of sun and valley cloud and cool temperatures for the foreseeable future.For more details check out https://avalanche.ca/weather.

On Wednesday, two avalanches were triggered by skiers in the Golden backcountry. The first was a size 2 wind slab 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 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, several small loose dry avalanches and one size 1.5 wind slab 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 in the lee of ridges and ribs. Between 40 and 100 cm below the surface you'll probably find a weak layer which was buried in early December. At and below treeline, this layer mainly consists 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.