Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Saturday

Thursday: Mostly clear with cloud cover increasing in the afternoon and light becoming moderate southerly winds. Friday: Light snowfall with 1-3cm of accumulation, or up to 10cm in the Coquihalla Pass area, and strong southwesterly winds. Saturday: Moderate snowfall with 5-10cm of accumulation, or up to 20cm for the Coquihalla Pass area, with strong southwesterly winds. Freezing levels are expected to hover around 1000m for the forecast period.

Fresh wind slabs and cornices are sensitive to human-triggers and could produce avalanches up to size 2.

Dribs and drabs of new snow, particularly in the Coquihalla Pass area, with associated winds are keeping wind slabs fresh and poorly bonded to the variable but predominately crusty snow surface from last weekend's warm, wet, and windy weather. Buried surface hoar and/or facets persists 10 or so centimetres below a weak rain crust on sheltered treeline slopes and below in the Duffy Lake area. Recent compression tests on a northerly aspect at 1750m produced easy sudden results down 20cm on surface hoar as large as 15mm. For the most part, the overlying slab is not yet thick enough for large avalanches, but with another 10-20cm of snow, this weakness will likely be a problem, particularly in open areas below treeline where it is especially thick. Check out the Forecaster's Blog link below for a discussion on incremental loading of potentially persistent weak layers. The mid and lower snowpack are generally well-settled and strong, but recent reports suggest basal facets create a deep persistent slab problem that deserves caution in shallow snowpack areas on planar rocky slopes.