Avalanche Forecast

Low

On Thursday, our field team observed 2 recent natural avalanches. With reduced visibility, the size 1.5-2 avalanches were 60-80 cm deep and suspected to have failed on a rain crust.

On Wednesday, skiers triggered a large, size 2 avalanche near Ningunsaw. The Deep Persistent avalanche was triggered on an east aspect near ridgetop in a thin, rocky start zone and failed on basal facets.

Reports Tuesday documented a very large (size 3.5) natural deep persistent slab avalanche observed in the Babines on a northwest aspect around 1700 m and failing on basal facets 150 cm deep. This speaks to the importance of conservative terrain selection through this period of active weather. Several less surprising small to large (size 1-2.5) naturals were also observed in steep leeward terrain in the same area.

Observations from Monday in the snowier southwestern part of the region show our recent storm snow reacting to ski cutting, which produced numerous small (up to size 1.5) storm slabs on steep slopes at treeline and below with crowns up to 40 cm. Isolated natural releases were also observed in the alpine.

If you are out in the backcountry, please share your observations with the Mountain Information Network!

Strong south wind has found 15-30 cm of recent snow, quickly promoting slab formation through Friday. The most recent snow adds to 50-10 cm of recent storm snow that has been getting continuously blown into wind slabs by southwest winds at treeline and above. The growing storm total sits on a crust from the warming event on January 25th.

The mid and lower snowpack continues to bond and stabilize. A few concerning weak layers can still be found in the top meter of the snowpack including a surface hoar layer from early January and a crust from late December.

Friday night

Light flurries, trace to 5 cm overnight. Southwest winds increasing to 40 km/hr. Treeline low temperature -10 C with freezing level valley bottom.

Saturday

Mostly cloudy, possible sunny breaks and isolated flurries, trace to 5 cm. Southwest winds gusting 40-60 km/hr. Treeline high temperature -5 C.

Snow starting late Saturday, 10 cm by Sunday morning. Southwest wind gusting to 70 km/hr with the storm. Treeline high temperature -2 C.

Snow tapering through the day, 5 cm. Southwest winds easing to 30-60 km/hr. Treeline high temperature -5 C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Make observations and assess conditions continually as you travel.
• Watch for signs of instability like whumpfing, hollow sounds, shooting cracks or recent avalanches.
• Dial back your terrain choices if you are seeing more than 25cm of new snow.