Avalanche Forecast

Low

The strong Pacific jet continues to push a series of storms across the province through the weekend and into next week. The details of these fast moving storms are hard to pin-point, like track, timing and intensity. Confidence remains low on the actuals. Freezing levels will likely rise to near 1800 m with each pulse then drop back to valley bottom. Saturday: Trace of new snow, strong-extreme westerly winds, freezing levels rising through the day to 1800 m. Sunday's weather mirrors Saturday. On Monday, new snow 3-10 cm, strong to extreme west winds, freezing levels 2100 m.

No recent avalanches have been reported. If you are out in the mountains, please post your observations to the Mountain Information Network.

Up to 18 cm of recent low density snow sits on the surface, or has been sluffing from steeper terrain features. The new snow sits on a variety of older snow surfaces which comprise of stubborn wind slabs and crusts in exposed higher elevation terrain, and loose faceted snow and surface hoar in more sheltered areas. Above treeline 100-150 cm of snow sits on the ground, while below treeline you may only find 40-90 cm. Several rain crust layers exist within the snowpack, one down approximately 30-60 cm (mid-November) and another down 10-25 cm depending on elevation. Snowpack test results have shown easy shears, failing in a facet layer below the crust. Definitely something to keep an eye on when we receive more load. Where this crust exists, it has added strength to the current snowpack. In general there is a lot of uncertainty regarding snowpack structure throughout the region