Avalanche Forecast

High - The weather pattern is stable

A ridge of high pressure is the dominant feature for the next couple days. On Sunday, mostly sunny conditions are expected with light to moderate northwest winds in the alpine and treeline temperatures around -10C in the afternoon. On Monday and Tuesday, a mix of sun and cloud is expected with moderate to strong westerly winds in the alpine and treeline temperatures around -10C.

No new avalanches have been reported recently but several avalanches were reported in the Lizard region on Thursday and Friday. The primary problem in that region is wind slabs failing on the early January layer of surface hoar.

The Avalanche Canada field team has been finding variable conditions across the region this week. Up to 10cm of new snow has fallen burying a layer of surface hoar in sheltered features. In the east of the region the snow surface is now widely wind affected with thin but stiff wind slabs in lee features at treeline and in the alpine. In areas that have seen less wind (a good indicator would be snow still hanging on the trees), these wind slabs may be softer and deeper. In either case, snow pit tests in wind loaded features show these slabs are failing under moderate loads and can propagate over wide distances. The early December crust can be found down around 60cm.  It is not currently expected to pose an avalanche problem but could wake-up in the future with substantial warming or heavy snow loading.