South Coast

Spring Conditions. The ridge of HIGH pressure is breaking down, and a weak weather system is moving on-shore. Expect high freezing levels to continue to result in wet slab and loose wet avalanches.

High cloud developing overnight with light southerly winds and freezing levels down to 2000 metres. Light precipitation starting Thursday morning combined with light southwest winds and freezing levels rising up to 2500 metres. Cloudy on Friday with 3-5 cm of new snow above 2000 metres and light southwest winds. Continued overcast with light precipitation and light winds on Saturday.

On Tuesday a size 3.0 wet slab avalanches was explosives triggered in the Duffey Lake area, this large avalanche released down to the ground on a northwest aspect at 2200 metres and ran to the valley bottom. Most commercial operations in the region have finished their season and data is sparse.

Cornices are large, fragile, and could trigger deep slab avalanches that run to valley bottoms. Monitoring the overnight freeze of the snow surface is very important.. If the snow surface does not freeze overnight or if the crust is only a few cm thick, the effect of daytime heating and solar radiation will weaken the snowpack much quicker. There is an old crust layer down approximately 50cm in the Duffey area and north of Pemberton. Though mostly dormant, it produced a couple large avalanches during the last major warming event. The forecast hottest weather of the year to date could again test it, especially in isolated locations such as steep, rocky faces. Glide cracks are widespread, active, and best avoided. Low elevation and thin snowpack areas have become isothermal, meaning the snowpack is 0 degrees Celsius throughout. An isothermal snowpack is more prone to full depth wet slab avalanches during the heat of the day, especially on steep, smooth slopes.