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)
Avoid aggressive terrain choices where a persistent slab problem could exist. Steep, rocky, shallow terrain are the most likely trigger areas.
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
Surface snow is a mix of newly developed surface hoar and sun crust. Wind-loaded pockets exist above various layers of soft snow, surface hoar, and melt-freeze crust.
A weak layer of facets buried in early December is on average 60 to 90 cm deep (except closer to 30 cm in the shallower eastern parts of the Purcells). This layer continues to cause occasional large avalanches.
The snowpack base consists of a thick crust and facets in many areas.
Avalanche Activity
Two notable avalanches occurred in the Dogtooth Range on Saturday:
A skier was caught in a size 2.5 wind slab avalanche that propagated widely across a northeast-facing slope. It ran on a 5 to 40 cm deep surface hoar layer. See this MIN report for details.
A group of skiers remotely triggered a size 2.5 persistent slab avalanche on a large southwest-facing alpine slope.
Many smaller (size 1 to 1.5) wind slab avalanches were also reported across the Purcells.