Avalanche Forecast

High - The weather pattern is stable on Thursday

Thursday: Mix of sun and cloud with alpine temperatures near -10. Ridgetop winds light from the northeast.Friday: Snow amounts 5-10 cm with alpine temperatures near -5 and freezing levels 1100m. Ridgetop winds light from southwest.Saturday: Snow amounts 5-15 cm with alpine temperatures near -1. Freezing levels 1300m and ridgetop winds light-gusting strong from the southwest.

On Tuesday, isolated wind slabs up to size 2 were reported from the Chilcotin area, primarily from west aspects above 2000 m. Wind slabs will likely remain reactive to rider triggers on the lee of exposed terrain at higher elevations. In thin rocky areas to the north, wind slabs could potentially step down to deeper weak layers.

Last weekend the region received approximately 10 cm of new snow accompanied by strong southwest winds. Lingering reactive wind slabs and wind scoured snow exist on exposed terrain at treeline and in the alpine. The new snow sits above a thin breakable sun crust and isolated pockets of surface hoar, potentially creating weak interfaces for wind slabs to propagate along. In northern areas (Duffey), the mid-January surface hoar and facet interface is now buried 50-80 cm down. This interface produced large avalanches a week during the storm, and may still be poorly bonded in thin snowpack areas such as the Hurley and/ or South Chilcotins. In southern areas (Coquihalla), the lower snowpack is reportedly well settled compared to the North.