Good skiing can be found close to treeline on sheltered north facing terrain. Evaluate specific terrain features before committing as we are in a low probability high consequence situation.
Weather Forecast
Thursday will be mainly cloudy with isolated flurries, trace precipitation, High -3 C, wind southwest:10-25 km/h, freezing level 1900 metres. Friday will be flurries and 9 cm of snow, low -11 C and high -5 C, wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 50 km/h, freezing level 1600 metres. Saturday will bring sun and flurries, low -6 C and high -3 C.
Snowpack Summary
Wind slabs and wind effect found in all open areas treeline and above. The upper snowpack is a 25 to 80 cm thick slab that sits on three weak FC crust layers in the mid-pack. Depth hoar persists near the ground.
Avalanche Summary
No patrol Wednesday. Skiers released a cornice to test Ulr / terminator chute #5 today and released a healthy size 2 avalanche. This is a steep N facing chute dropping into Whistler creek drainage from the backside of Marmot basin.
Confidence
Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.