Avalanche Forecast

Good - -1

Wednesday: Mix of sun and cloud. Light precipitator today up to 5mm. Ridgetop winds from the SW 70-100km/hr. Freezing levels rising to 2000m throughout the day. Thursday: Snow amounts up to 5cms in the morning. Ridgetop winds from the West 55-70km/hr. Freezing levels falling back to valley bottom midday. Friday: Mix of sun and cloud. Freezing levels remain near valley bottom. Ridgetop winds light-moderate from the SW.

On Monday a skier triggered a size 2 slab avalanche in the Harvey Pass area. A wind slab from the ridgecrest was triggered, then stepped down 55cms to a weak surface hoar/ facet layer beneath the surface. Please visit our incident report database on our website for more details @ avalanche.ca.

The CAC Field team headed to Harvey Pass on Tuesday and completed a fracture line profile on yesterday's skier triggered avalanche. The total HS (height of snow) in that area is 180cms. A stiff wind slab was triggered and stepped down 55cms to the mid-December surface hoar/facet layer. Compression tests done showed hard results, but sudden planar characteristics. I suspect you can find this buried layer to the West of the divide in most locations. As soon as you travel to the east surface hoar is spotty, and/or non-existent. The snowpack to the east is 100-120cms in depth, and widespread wind slabs have formed lee to the SW in upper elevations. Many windward areas are scoured. The mid pack is generally well consolidated. At the bottom of the snowpack 20cms of 4F facets and depth hoar exist.