Sea To Sky

New snow and wind are forming fresh, reactive slabs.

Stick to lower-angled conservative terrain and be mindful of overhead hazard.

Up to 30 cm of new snow overlies a sun crust on steep south-facing slopes, surface hoar in sheltered areas, and wind-affected surfaces in exposed areas.

An otherwise right-side-up snowpack appears to be bonding well to a crust buried 70 to 100 cm deep. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well-settled and bonded with no layers of concern.

On Wednesday, several natural solar-triggered and skier remote-triggered wind slab avalanches were observed from alpine terrain (read more here).

Looking forward to Friday, avalanche danger will increase as new snow and wind form fresh, reactive storm slabs.

Thursday Night

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of new snow. 25 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level drops to 1000 m.

Friday

Mostly cloudy with up to 10 cm of new snow. 20 to 60 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Saturday

Mostly sunny with lingering valley cloud. 15 to 40 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C.

Sunday

Mostly sunny with valley cloud. 15 to 40 km/h north ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• It's a good day to make conservative terrain choices.
• Avoid freshly wind-loaded features, especially near ridge crests, rollovers, and in steep terrain.
• Be aware of the potential for larger than expected storm slabs due to buried surface hoar.
• The best and safest riding will be on slopes that have soft snow without any slab properties.