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</style><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Sunday afternoon saw heavy snowfall (15cm in 5 hours at Kootenay Pass) coupled with moderate to strong south west winds and rising avalanche danger. </span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Elsewhere in the region, storm snow totals over the weekend were on the order of 15-30cm. Winds were gusting moderate at times and created fresh wind slabs on a wide range of aspects at upper elevations. </span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Critical instabilities are buried well below the surface: </span><a href="https://youtu.be/fGxjbXDLrK8" target="_blank"><span class="s_B5813F7D">See this video for a summary of conditions near Nelson.</span></a><span class="s_3FE45715"> </span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">A mixture of weak surface hoar and/or a crust from mid-January is buried beneath all the storm snow at 90-120cm deep. Numerous recent avalanches to size 2.5 have been reported on this layer and large, destructive avalanches at this interface remain a concern.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Below this layer lies a second crust/surface hoar interface buried early-January that is now 120-140 cm deep. Several recent avalanches have stepped down to this layer.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">The mid-December surface hoar layer is buried 130-160 cm below the surface. This layer has continued to produce step down releases and &quot;sudden&quot; test results. It is most pronounced at tree line, but is also present below tree line . </span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715"> </span></p>