Sea To Sky

Large, fragile cornices demand respect. Give them a wide berth on ridges and avoid travelling underneath them.

Moderate - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

The first of two cold fronts is expected to bring 5-10 cm snow late on Friday, with moderate south-westerly winds and the freezing level dropping to around 1300 m. There is a lull on Saturday before the second front brings light snow and moderate winds again on Sunday.

A few size 1-2 wind slabs were triggered by skiers and naturally over the past few days. In some areas affected by the sun, loose wet avalanches were observed. These were mostly small, but some very large (size 3) wet avalanches were observed on a flight yesterday.

Cornices are large and weak. Recently formed storm slabs and wind slabs are generally settling, but may still be reactive to human triggers in specific terrain, and may be triggered by cornice fall. Several crusts can be found in the upper metre of the snowpack. A layer of surface hoar buried in early January is down 1-2 m. In most places it is thought to be capped by a thick strong crust. It is becoming increasingly hard to make this layer fail in snowpack tests and triggering an avalanche on it is unlikely.