Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number and quality of field observations

THURSDAY: flurries, light to moderate westerly winds, 1000m freezing level. FRIDAY: light snow with up to 10cm possible in the south west of Simthers, moderate southerly winds, 1200m freezing level. SATURDAY: flurries, light to moderate southerly winds, 1200m freezing level.

A small natural avalanche cycle was reported in the northwest of the region on Tuesday.  Several natural wind slab avalanches north of Bell 2 stepped down to the basal facets.  A very large avalanche was triggered remotely by a skier on Monday near the Kispiox, it also released on basal facets in a steep unsupported wind loaded feature. 

Recent moderate easterly winds have created fresh pockets of wind slab in reverse loaded alpine and treeline lee features. A couple of crusts buried in early and late February can be found in the upper meter of the snowpack.  Below this a layer of surface hoar from early January can be found in isolated locations between 60 and 140cm down.  There hasn't been any activity reported on this layer for a couple of weeks now and it is becoming less of a concern.  The snowpack in shallower areas sits on a weak base layer of facetted snow.  This has been an active layer recently, responsible for several large avalanches in unsupported alpine features over the last couple of weeks.