Avalanche Forecast
Avalanche Forecasts are for use by experienced backcountry travelers in uncontrolled sidecountry and backcountry terrain. These forecasts and conditions do not apply to open, in-bounds terrain at ski resorts, which is subject to avalanche control by local resort ski patrol.
Avalanche Rating
Moderate (2)
Avalanche reports point to a surface hoar layer that may keep wind slabs reactive longer than usual. Sporadic deeper releases mean terrain choices should stay on the conservative side.
More Detail
To get the complete forecast with additional graphics and details, please view the Avalanche Canada Zone forecast provided by Avalanche Canada.
Snowpack Discussion
Expect to find 20 to 30 cm of soft snow in sheltered areas, and wind slabs below exposed alpine and treeline ridges.
Below the recent snow, there are potentially a couple different layers of large, feathery surface hoar crystals. They may be resting on a crust on slopes that face the sun.
A widespread surface hoar/facet/crust layer from early December is buried 70 to 120 cm. This layer is trending to unreactive in much of the region, but it's not fully healed. It was most recently active south of Trout Lake and east of Slocan Lake on north through east-facing slopes between 1700 and 2300 m.
At treeline, snow depths range from 135 to 200 cm.
Avalanche Activity
On Sunday, there were several small rider-triggered wind slabs on east to southeast aspects at treeline. Check out this MIN report for a good sample of the issue.
No avalanches have been reported on the early December persistent weak layer since January 6, northwest of Kaslo. However, whumpfs have been reported, which could be this layer.