Northwest Coastal

Heavily wind-affected surfaces are making skiing and riding a bit of a terrifying prospect.

High -

Wednesday night: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light northeast winds.Thursday: A mix of sun and cloud. Moderate east winds. Alpine high temperatures around -12.Friday: A mix of sun and cloud. Light north winds. Alpine high temperatures around -15.Saturday: Sunny. Light northeast winds, increasing over the day. Alpine high temperatures around -16 and rising overnight.

No new avalanches have been reported over the past few days.Reports from Sunday showed a continuation of small (size 1), thin wind slabs releasing with ski cutting on northwest to west aspects. In the north of the region near Ningunsaw, an older, large (size 3) natural deep persistent slab was recently observed on a steeper, crossloaded feature at 1700 metres. The slab depth ranged from 50 cm to 2 metres as a shallower wind slab release stepped down to the weaker basal snowpack that exists in this part of the region.

In most areas, the upper snowpack is composed of successive layers of aging, wind affected storm snow layers. The top layer of this snow has been faceting (becoming sugary) under the influence of recent cold temperatures at all elevations. Limited sheltered areas at lower elevations may still hold pockets of around 40 cm of lower density snow which will overlie a thick melt-freeze crust at and below treeline. This crust now presents on the surface in many wind-exposed areas.In the south of the region, the remainder of the snowpack is well-settled.Around Bear Pass and in the north of the region a few weak layers may still be preserved within the middle and lower half of the snowpack. These include layers of surface hoar at around 50 cm deep, 70 to 100 cm deep, and a layer of sugary faceted snow around 200 cm deep. These layers are a concern in thinner snowpack areas at higher elevations where thicker, bridging layers of old storm snow and crust may be absent.