Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain

Mostly clear skies are forecast sunday through tuesday with light to moderate winds from the northwest. On sunday, freezing levels are expected to sit at or near surface, but a spike in temperature is forecast for monday with freezing levels reaching 3000m. On tuesday, freezing levels are expected to dip back to around1500m.

Avalanche activity has tapered off throughout the week. Although the likelihood of triggering avalanches is lower, the potential consequences are still very high.Likelihood of avalanches may increase on steeper, sun exposed slopes with forecast rising temperatures.

Moderate to strong winds from different directions have hit the region over the past 2 days. As a result pockets of windslab may still be lingering on various aspects at treeline and in the alpine. Deeper in the snowpack we are dealing with a complex and somewhat unusual snowpack for the South Coast. Around Whistler there are persistent weak layers deep in the snowpack including a layer of depth hoar right near the base of the snowpack and at least two distinct crust/facet combinations between 50-100cm above the ground. Recent storms have dumped up to 200cm of snow on top of the weak underlying snowpack. Time has allowed the overlying snow to gain strength making it less likely to trigger the deeper weaknesses, but if you do hit the sweet spot the resulting avalanche could have very serious consequences. The greatest concern is with complex, rocky slopes above 1900m that have not recently avalanched.