Avalanche Forecast

Good

Synopsis: A ridge of high pressure should be the dominant feature over the next several days. The only exception is on Saturday when a weak disturbance moves across the coast. Inland areas of the coast may only see a bit more cloud from this pulse. Temperatures should stay slightly below normal with daytime highs around -10 at treeline and winds generally light from the north. The sun should return on Sunday with temperatures starting to rise and the potential for an above freezing layer to form.

There are reports of a widespread natural avalanche cycle from Tuesday night and Wednesday. Slab avalanches up to size 3 were observed, with many events occurring below treeline and failing on the early January surface hoar layer. There are also a couple reports of skier triggered avalanches up to size 2 and avalanches being triggered from a distance.

40-80 cm of snow fell earlier this week, with the heaviest amounts in the Coquihalla area. Strong southwesterly winds produced dense wind slabs in exposed leeward terrain. Weaknesses exist within this recent storm snow as well as at the interface with the previous snow surface, which includes large surface hoar, facets, old hard wind slabs, or a sun crust. Recent compression tests on a north aspect below treeline gave several sudden planar (pops) results in the top 100 cm. No significant weaknesses have been reported recently below this in the mid snowpack layers. Near the base of the snowpack, a crust/facet layer exists, which is now unlikely to be triggered, except perhaps by heavy triggers in steep, shallow, rocky terrain where more facetting has taken place.