Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain on Friday

A ridge of high pressure moving in from the coast is expected to produce light southerly winds combined with broken skies and freezing levels rising to about 1300 metres by Thursday afternoon. Warm temperatures are forecast to persist through the night and into Friday morning. More clearing is expected on Friday. Freezing levels are expected to rise to about 1700 metres, and solar radiation should be strong on sun exposed slopes. Alpine temperatures are forecast to be around -3.0 in the alpine. Saturday is expected to be mostly clear with temperatures a few degrees cooler than Friday.

Numerous size 1.0 loose dry sloughs reported from the 12 cm of new snow that fell in "power flurries" in the Duffey Lake area. When the sun popped out it caused loose snow naturals on east and south aspects.

Another 10-15 cm fell in the region on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, adding to the weekend storm snow. During the weekend storm, rain fell to about 1700m, but freezing levels fluctuated during the storm. In the Duffey Lake area light amounts of more recent snow now sit above a new rain crust that has formed below 1700m while fresh soft wind slabs rest over cohesive stubborn wind slabs at higher elevations. In the Coquihalla area temperatures have been slower to drop. The warmer present temperatures combined with the higher snowfall/rain values in this area means that deep wind slabs have been slower to stabilize. More recent soft wind slabs now sit on top. With the recent wind and snowfall there are widespread unstable cornices. Any cornice fall would be destructive by itself, but could also be a trigger for the slope below. Persistent weak layers lower down in the snowpack have generally ceased to be of concern, except perhaps in very isolated, thin rocky areas. Most recently, the Coquihalla area has been receiving the most snowfall with current snowpack depths at treeline amounting to 390cm. In the Duffey Lake area, treeline depths are closer to 240cm.