Northwest Coastal

Wind slabs formed during recent strong outflow winds linger in exposed alpine terrain. While numerous buried weak layers demand careful terrain selection.

The recent cold weather has tightened and stabilized the upper snowpack, reducing the number of avalanche activity.

Backcountry users continue to report evidence of a significant avalanche cycle during the recent warm, wet, and windy weather early in the week. The majority of these avalanches were wind slabs, however, a number of avalanches stepped down to buried persistent layers, creating large, scary avalanches, like this one nearby in the Telkwa area on Friday.

If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a Mountain Information Network report.

Recent strong outflow winds have stripped northerly aspects throughout the alpine, redistributing the snow into pockets of wind slab on lee, southerly terrain. While at lower elevations a widespread, supportive, melt-freeze crust exists on the surface up to roughly 1900 m and has prevented the wind from transporting much snow.

The mid and lower snowpack continues to bond and stabilize while a number of buried weak layers remain a concern and have produced a number of large recent avalanches.

Sunday night

Clear, with no precipitation. Treeline temperatures 0 to -5 C, with alpine temperature inversion. Light to moderate northwest alpine winds.

Monday

Cloudy with sunny periods, and afternoon flurries, with trace amounts of snow. Treeline temperatures 0 to -10 C. Moderate to strong northwest alpine winds.

Tuesday

Cloudy with snow, 5 to 10 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C. Strong southwest alpine winds.

Wednesday

Cloudy with snow, 5 to 10 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C. Moderate southwest alpine winds.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid steep, rocky, and wind effected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
• Expect slab conditions to change drastically as you move into wind exposed terrain.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.