Intense solar radiation may cause a spike in avalanche activity on sun-exposed slopes.
Summary
Confidence
Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Friday
Weather Forecast
Wednesday: Mostly clear with light winds and freezing levels rising to around 1200m. Thursday: Increasing high clouds throughout the day with light winds and freezing levels as high as 2500m for the southernmost part of the region. Friday: Mostly cloudy with snow increasing in the afternoon. Freezing levels around 1000m and moderate southwesterly winds.
Avalanche Summary
Reports from Monday include numerous Size 1-2 explosive-triggered and slope-cut soft wind slab avalanches. One of the larger slope-cuts stepped down 60cm to an old buried wind slab, while another failed on a crust buried last week and propagated onto 15 degree terrain. A brief period of strong solar radiation in the morning caused a couple of Size 3 loose snow avalanches on the Squamish-Cheakamus divide. These started off as surface sluffs and eventually entrained all of the recent storm snow on the entire slope and ran full path.
Snowpack Summary
Around 50-60cm of recent low density storm snow and/or weak wind slabs are bonding poorly to a variety of old snow surfaces, including crusts and wind slabs, from last week. Recent winds and precipitation patterns have created a highly variable slab depth with ability to propagate in low angled terrain and a structure conducive to step-down avalanches. The top 10cm or so is becoming moist during the day with sun exposure, and there is still a lot of snow available for reverse-loading if outflow winds pick up.
ccampbell,
Avalanche Canada
