Sea To Sky

Conditions vary dramatically by elevation. Expect to find lingering cornice and wind slab problems as you reach the alpine.

High -

Saturday night: Clear periods with decreasing cloud. Light northeast winds.Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud. Light northeast winds. Alpine high temperatures around -7.Monday: Mainly sunny. Light northeast winds. Alpine high temperatures around -6.Tuesday: Sunny. Light north winds. Alpine high temperatures rising to -2 as a temperature inversion establishes.

Explosives control work in the Whistler area on Friday produced several size 1.5 cornice releases and one 20 cm deep size 1.5 storm slab. On Wednesday cornices were touchy; a size 1.5 cornice failure was initiated with a very light load. Control work produced storm slabs that averaged size 1.5 on a variety of aspects in the alpine. The outlier was a size 3 avalanche induced by control work on a south facing alpine feature which stepped down to the early November crust.Skies cleared Tuesday allowing some observation of avalanches that likely released at the height of the storm. A large (size 2.5) avalanche was reported on a northeast facing glacial feature between 2100 and 2200 m. The avalanche failed naturally with a crown up to 1 meter in depth. Another large natural avalanche (size 2) was reported from a north facing feature near 2000 m. Please submit any observations you have to the Mountain Information Network here,

The storm from early last week brought intense precipitation that rain-soaked the existing snowpack up to about 1800 m and left 20 to 30 cm of wet snow in place up to 2000 m. Above 2000 m the storm produced around 60 cm of new snow. The upper 20 to 30 cm of snow is reportedly dry in the alpine. Strong to extreme wind during the storm formed storm slabs and cornices in high elevation alpine terrain. Above 2000 m, 50 to 200 cm of snow now sits on the early November melt-freeze crust. Little is known about the reactivity of this interface in the alpine. This crust may be associated with weak faceted crystals in some places where it lies close to the ground. This is most likely to cause problems in glaciated terrain or on smoother, high elevation slopes where the summer snow did not melt out.