Lizard-Flathead
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Cornices, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Cornices, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Mt. Fernie Ridge
<p>Early morning up to the back Mt. Fernie ridge. Got some good turns in on the melt/freeze. A little hollow sounding up in the bowl but nothing too worrying in the cold of the morning.</p>
espeters10,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
A little more like spring in Corbin
<p>There is still between 2-3 meters of snow at treeline in the Corbin area. We took the time to dig to the ground today, to revisit layers formed earlier this winter, and ponder their potential as critical avalanche layers if real spring ever arrives. The upper snowpack consisted of a variety of melt-freeze crusts and the midpack is well consolidated and firm. We didn’t find any loose, weak sugary, faceted crystals at the bottom of the snowpack at this spot. It was +2 at 2100 m and the recent storm snow was becoming moist. There were some wet loose avalanches (size 1-1.5) out of steep alpine and treeline features and cornices look big and mature. The skiing was shmoopy, but the day was pleasant enough after last week’s cold and windy weather.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
We Went, We Saw, We left
<p>The return to winter came with cold temperatures and not quite enough new snow to change the conditions to good! There were strong southeast winds moving around what little new snow (5 cm) into isolated pockets of wind slab. These isolated pockets were bonding to the crust for the most part. We tested a number of rollovers and only had minimal cracking at our skis. Wind ward slopes were being blown down to the crust making skiing variable between crust and wind-affected snow. We did see a couple small size 1 - 1.5 avalanches out of a steep lee feature in the alpine. </p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Wet Feet in Cold Feet
<p>We headed up Hartley (Cold Feet) today for a poke around.
The Good: We got some exercise.
The Bad: Can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear…the skiing was bad.
The Ugly: We got stuck in a convective snow/rain shower (snow line was 2000m) and got pretty darn damp!
The snow from earlier this week was somewhere between wet and moist depending on aspect and elevation, but an older melt-freeze crust below it has remained intact/supportive limiting the size of avalanche activity. We saw some big rollerball activity out of steeper terrain from the last few days, but with our limited visibility we didn’t spot any new avalanches today.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Wind, Wind, Wind in Flathead
<p>In the Corbin area (Raingauge) we found strong winds were stripping open slopes down to the melt-freeze crust and building isolated wind slabs in the alpine and treeline. We traveled mostly on windward slopes in the alpine today, so really happy to have our ski crampons. We suspect that where wind slabs are building at upper elevations they may be a bit more reactive but found that at treeline wind slabs were more stubborn. We did get a few steep rollovers to release with some work.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
If you’re going to be late, you better be lucky.
<p>If you’re going to be late, you need to be lucky! Weather wise that is.
We didn’t get an early start, but with ample cloud blocking out the intense solar radiation, and strong winds helping to keep snow surfaces cool; an early spring start wasn’t as important today. With few avalanche concerns other than not to hang out under cornices, we skied a southeast facing avalanche path with no overhead hazard in the Corbin area. At 2 pm the southerly terrain was still supportive and had just softened enough for good corn skiing. Other aspects remained quite crusty while we were in the field.
We spotted a few more avalanches today, but giving them an exact date is tricky. They likely happened in the last week or so during a period of intense warming and sun. Many of them were triggered by cornices.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Corn based diet
<p>We let the sun soften the melt freeze crust the perfect amount for harvesting with skis. Cornice triggered slab avalanches and wet debris piles from this week were evident. Be careful in the afternoon when it is hot!</p>
bross_mmkay,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
More snow, and less crust today!
<p>We were pleasantly surprised today to find soft snow and good powder turns. WE toured up a west-facing slope where we were finding 5 - 10cm of graupel mixed soft snow over a temperature crust below 1600m, above this it was a firm density change. Once up at the ridge we dropped into a northeast aspect to check for wind slab and were happy to find 10 - 15 cm of soft snow and no crust. We decided to ski the slope and were careful to avoid the cornices along the ridge as we accessed the slope.
After our run, we climbed back up to the ridge, as we changed aspect to a more south-facing slope we found a melt-freeze crust that made us happy about our run choice! We had another good run down the west-facing slope that was good skiing right back to our sleds at 1550m where the surface snow was just getting warm.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
All season saturday
<p>Riding conditions were amazing. Approximately 10cm of snow thursday night and 50cm total in the last week. 1pm at 2000m the temp was +1*C and it was quite sunny out. We started noticing pinwheeling and the snow was becoming heavier as the day went on . Towards the end of the day we got a couple random flurrie storms that passed through greatly reducing visibility.</p>
mattd6178,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Tunnel creek
<p>Last few days at Tunnel Creek. Sunday and Monday very windy with light snow transport forming stubborn isolated wind slabs.
20-30 cm HN this morning-likely much more by now. High density upside down in structure. Slab property increases at upper TL. Feature wide avalanches 20 -30 cm in depth, triggering remotely on northerly aspects at TL upon reaching ridge top on southerly aspects this morning. Rain soaked below approximately 1400 m. </p>
benjackman85,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Trespass Trees
<p>Great skiing in the north aspect of Trespass Ridge! 15cm of dry-ish powder on top of a very supportive crust. On the south aspect of Trespass Ridge we saw a sun crust a few centimetres down that varied in thickness from not there to 5cm. On the ski out the snow grew wetter with the decrease in elevation and increase in temperature. On the top of Trespass Ridge the temperature was just below freezing. A great day out with great conditions!</p>
aidan.mckenna,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Windy Tunnel Weekend
<p>Found some excellent skiing today on the south slope off Planetary. Wind effect was very prominent near tunnel hut (we noticed a lot of funnelling overnight) and at ridgetop. We noticed some cracking without propagation on our uptrack in Sunnyside, but no signs of instability on the down. Also did a lap in Sunnyside which was pretty marginal with pockets of wind crust and significant solar crust on the lower half. No signs of recent avalanches that we saw.</p>
karenprezelj,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Fernie 2000 foot. Tenderloin
<p>Conditions were good but some challenging crust on south and wind affected on North facing slopes. We did see some surface sluffing as we descended.</p>
pat,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Trespass -> Racecar
<p>HS 275. TL. 1950m, N facing @ 16:16. CTM: 9, 30cm down on crust sudden planar & 19, 100cm down on crust sudden planar.
Note: Did not reproduce.</p>
espeters10,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Sunny at Little Sand today!
<p>Today in the Little Sand area in the Lizard Range we found the best skiing was on north-facing slopes where the top 25cm was soft. There is little wind effect in the area with some stiffer snow at ridge crests only. The south-facing slopes are a different story with a pretty decent crust from strong solar and warmer temperatures at the beginning of the week. We sound the Jan 30 surface hoar layer in the area down 95 cm. No result from Compression or Extended column test and a Deep Tap Test (DTT 19 SP on size 9 SH) result.
There were a few older storm snow avalanches in the area that we suspect are from last week but nothing new today. Temperatures were still cool at -7 as a daytime high in the alpine and light west winds in the afternoon.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Sunny at Little Sand today!
<p>Today in the Little Sand area in the Lizard Range we found the best skiing was on north-facing slopes where the top 25cm was soft. There is little wind effect in the area with some stiffer snow at ridge crests only. The south-facing slopes are a different story with a pretty decent crust from strong solar and warmer temperatures at the beginning of the week. We sound the Jan 30 surface hoar layer in the area down 95 cm. No result from Compression or Extended column test and a Deep Tap Test (DTT 19 SP on size 9 SH) result.
There were a few older storm snow avalanches in the area that we suspect are from last week but nothing new today. Temperatures were still cool at -7 as a daytime high in the alpine and light west winds in the afternoon.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Beauty Day in Barnes
<p>Great views with clear skies today in the Barnes area. Temperatures were tolerable at -13 warming to -7 at staging. There was 10 - 15 cm new snow over various old surfaces of soft snow from last week and crusts on steep south-facing slopes. We dug a couple of profiles looking for the January 30 surface hoar layer. Both were on north-facing slopes the first one was a more exposed alpine feature where we found no concerning layers in the upper snowpack. The second was on a sheltered treeline feature where we found two layers a graupel/facet layer that was unreactive and the surface hoar layer down 110 cm . Tests done on this layer were resistant and in the hard range. (DTT (26) RP down 110 on rounding surface hoar) We saw no new avalanches and skied a north-facing slope where there was some great snow.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Shadow hunting and dragon sighting
<p>Had a close call today (see photo). 2150m East face. Pinned approx spot.
Skinned up to the ridge and as we were making our way up an extra lump on the ridge top we stepped on to the east face … boy was that a mistake… huge settlement and a slab let go a (very) little ahead. Luckily the section we were on was supported by a bunch of trees. Lesson (re) learned : when doing sketchy shit don’t all be in the same spot. ?♂️
Needless to say we stuck to the west slope from then on, found some great snow in the shade and some great riding with it.
Had some whumphing in very isolated spots among the trees on a lower elevation (~1850) sheltered north facing section, as has become normal at the moment. </p>
ingle.bj,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Racecar Rock (almost)
<p>Partly cloudy, warm day skinning up ~500 m below Racecar Rock. Great snow conditions on the N/NE aspect of the ridge between Racecar and the pass. Snow remained dry on N facing and shaded slopes all the way down to ~1200 m. </p>
haleypocaluyko,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Tunnel Creek
<p>Saw numerous small loose snow avalanches on south facing steep/rocky slopes. This one caught my attention though as it appears to have had stepped down and ran a good distance.</p>
shawcorbett,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Ridge 2000/1
<p>Took a walk up 2000 ridge from Gorby, turning back at ~1700m around 1pm.
Did a hasty dig on an E aspect around 10 to try and get an idea what we’d see later on on shadier slopes and saw ~15cm of new storm snow on top of ~30-40cm of soaking wet rotten crystals (not frozen) which sat on a ~2mm crystal clear crust. Camera couldn’t pick up the details so no photo sorry. We found the same trend on the N aspect, and watched the storm snow get progressively gloppier through the day.
Rode a N aspect down to ~1200m in the bottom of Liverwurst bowl, with snow predictably getting stickier as we descended… the stuff at ~1700m was pretty glorious. Storm snow blended with the wet stuff to feel bottomless yet supportive.
Skinned back up to traverse back round in to Fish bowl, and boy was the low angle, low elevation east face sticky… expect a decent crust there tomorrow if we get a good freeze tonight, it was starting to set up already in the shade at 3pm ish.
Like my new favourite symbol?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
ingle.bj,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Big sand ck
<p>Skied north facing trees from 1500-2100m. Snow stayed dry all day with no signs of instability. We didn't see any new avalanches with great visibility. Conditions were surprisingly good once we gained elevatoon. Ski pen was 20-30, still hitting the crust in steep spots </p>
LesC,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Outer Siberia ridge
<p>Soft and dry snow found on north facing aspect resulted in some nice skiing! Snow pit facing NE confirmed that the new storm snow was bonding well to the snowpack. Observed a 1-2cm rain crust from earlier in the week & slight surface hoar buildup on top of last nights accumulation in open shaded area.
Happy griz days!</p>
tusim20,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Mammoth Head AST2 Observations
<p>-Soft snow on North facing slopes at 1700m.
-Melt freeze crust was present in more solar effected aspects.
- Compression Test on North facing slope of Mammoth shoulder produced no results.
- Fresh point release wet loose avalanche, around size 2, was triggered likely due to solar radiation. </p>
mayafleury8714,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Lost Boys
<p>Loose wet avalanches observed in steep terrain on all aspects. South facing aspect size up to 1.5 loose wet. Riding condition skiable but heavy. ECT in tree line Northwest at 1750 m that did not propagate do not find surface hose. 30 cm of new snow 280 cm where we dug pits. </p>
c.dierker,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
AST 1 Lost Boys Lookout
<p>Snowed approximately 10 cm over the day. Precip fell as snow all day, though we got pretty damp. There were light SW winds through the day. Some pinwheeling observed on our ski out of Lost Boys. Thin crust under today’s new snow with moist snow underneath.
</p>
madeline.martin99,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Tunnel Creek mid day
<p>HS 185. Sheltered BLT. 1460m SE facing 15:30. CTM 14, down 10cm on crust sudden planar.</p>
espeters10,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Figuring out the best way to travel on hard surfaces ⛸️
<p>No form of travel was ideal today as we dabbled with tricky sidehilling on sleds and slippery skiing on crusts. In the end we resorted to walking on the snow :(
There were small pockets of soft snow in the trees and some small wind slabs along ridgelines that were really hard to get moving (they were not reactive). We were cautious with open north facing trees, even though we didn't see evidence of the persistent slab problem today.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Wild Wild Wind
<p>Skied Ridge 2000 today, lots of snow transport from the steady NE wind & lots of shallow windslab. Found good snow in sheltered areas and lower down off the ridge.
</p>
erik.mauer,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Outer Mongolia
<p>Riding conditions better on northeast aspects vs. southeast
No signs of instability</p>
matthew.line,
Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 9:33PM
Little sand approach
sllupul,
Monday 14th March, 2022 6:45PM
Good skiing, but a little spicy
<p>Good skiing on all aspects. Lots of natural and skier accidental avalanches on N and E aspects this weekend. </p>
lukekary,
Monday 7th March, 2022 7:05AM
DavideCivico
Davide Civico,
Friday 4th March, 2022 9:50PM
Lizard-flat head range - back side of FAR
<p>A group of several riders in the slack country of the Fernie Alpine Resort. Choosing conservative mellow terrain and skiing on primary SW slopes with no signs of previous avalanche history (Lost Boys Pass). With four compression tests and three extended column tests we confirmed the following.
**Tests were done on SW slope, 14:30h, 1760m, angle was 28 degrees. HS: 230cm HN: 30-32cm. New snow was light on the top 5-10cm and increased moisture content with depth**
- A freeze thaw layer under the top 30 - 35cm that reacted in both sudden planar and sudden collapse. Facets found on bed surface aprox 3mm
- Majority of reactions on the top 30-35cm on CTM
- Only a few reaction on the persistent layer 95cm down. reaction was resistant planar on CTH (23)
- A number of layers of F1 or P density in the upper 100cm of the snow pack. (30cm, 35cm, 65cm and 95cm)
- Signs of avalanche activity from point release and dry loose in upper alpine. Size 1 or smaller. </p>
geoffreyhawkswell,
Friday 4th March, 2022 6:15PM
Lost boys with AST 2 course
<p>Skied with an AST course from Mountain Addicts guiding through lost boys pass most of the way up Mammoth’s Head after 31 cm fell at FAR. Snow was initially well bonded and not slabby. In the afternoon after some sun had hit the west facing slope of mammoth’s head immediately below lost boys pass, we witnessed numerous class 1-1.5 wet loose avalanches on that sun facing slope and one class 2 wet loose that slid just after we left.
(Mountain Addicts offers great AST courses https://mountainaddicts.ca/)</p>
canadianrockyskibike,
Friday 4th March, 2022 5:35PM
F.A.R. Lost Boys/Mammoth Head
adrian.vendrig,
Thursday 3rd March, 2022 7:40PM
warm soggy moist
<p>Warm and moist conditions making ski quality not so awesome but soft at least. We found 10cm on a crust till about 2000m; from that elevation, the snow got deeper and the crust started to disappear. The big surface hoar layer from late January was down 75cm. It was hard to get it to slide in our snowpack test but once we got it to go, it came off like a cash register. Triggering this layer would produce a large avalanche.</p>
southrockies,
Thursday 3rd March, 2022 4:25PM
Mongolia/Mammoth Droppings
conniehenderson3,
Tuesday 1st March, 2022 12:45PM
Fernie Falling Star TL - Practice
jaeger.pascoe,
Monday 28th February, 2022 8:10PM
Snowpack said no!
<p>We went out with a plan to ride some steep north facing trees but when we got there we felt the snowpack whumpfing and saw shooting cracks ahead of us. We dug down to have a look and our test results showed a large surface hoar layer buried 60cm deep that was reacting. With this new info we changed our plan and stuck to lower angle trees, avoiding convexities and steep spots.</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 23rd February, 2022 4:20PM
Lost Boys Pass -> Mammoth Head Avalanche
espeters10,
Monday 21st February, 2022 4:10PM
Mcdermid + Tunnel
<p>Spent Friday night at Tunnel hut. Friday we skied a sheltered SE slid path through the trees off Planetary for really nice soft turns through surface hoar galore. Saturday we went to ride one of the McD Couloirs and settled on Hidden after peering into bonus and the steep entrance looked sluffed down to crust ( another party skied it and confirmed, rest was wind slabby). The SW ridge had been wind hammered and the NW couloir skiing was through soft non reactive wind slab, grabby for skiers.
Mod- strong winds Friday and Saturday, whatever little snow was available for transport was blowing, windward areas scoured.
Widespread surface hoar everywhere in sheltered areas, all aspects, up on 2000m ridge tops. Wherever the wind couldn’t get it. </p>
samuel.higgins,
Sunday 30th January, 2022 9:50AM
Corbin bridge 7
jonathan13reid,
Sunday 9th January, 2022 8:50PM
Mount Procter Summit
<p>Wanted to start the New Year off with a summit. Day started foggy and it was clearing by noon, even got a touch of sunshine on our climb. Shortly followed by increasing SW winds and cloud. Ridgetop was scoured down to rock/ice. The ski down was made treacherous by flat light and terrible wind affected snow. Good training day if you're into getting blasted on ridgetops and skiing upsidedown snow. </p>
mattszczepanski.ms,
Saturday 1st January, 2022 8:20PM
Cold and Blower
<p>Just a quick lap up to the Tunnel Creek hut, then up to Sunnyside and out via Home Run.
It was very cold out there today but the snow quality was really good.
Snowpack seems to be bonding very well. </p>
finlaythomson07,
Wednesday 29th December, 2021 5:15PM
Earlier the better
conniehenderson3,
Friday 16th April, 2021 5:10PM
Digging trenches in entrenchment
southrockies,
Tuesday 2nd March, 2021 5:05PM
Jerome’s Bowl
<p>While a member in our party side hilled a small slope beside the trail, approx 35 degrees facing south east, he noticed shooting cracks when he came back down to join the trail. </p>
kkmuncaster,
Monday 1st March, 2021 8:27PM
1st problem of the year developing well!
Steve Kuijt,
Sunday 6th December, 2020 8:40PM
Ski Cutting in Slack Country
Steve Kuijt,
Sunday 1st March, 2020 7:45AM