Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

We're looking at seasonal temperatures, light winds, a mix of sun and cloud with occasional isolated flurries for most of the week. MONDAY: Sunny with cloudy periods, light northerly wind and freezing level around 1100m. Alpine highs near -5 Celsius. TUESDAY: Sunny with cloudy periods, light northwesterly wind and freezing level around 800m. WEDNESDAY: Sunny breaks with isolated flurries, local accumulations 1-5 cm. Light northwesterly wind and freezing level around 700m.

A Size 2 natural storm slab avalanche was reported Sunday near Blackcomb. The crown was 50-100cm high, on a west/southwest aspect near 2100m.A Size 2 (from Friday into Saturday) was reported on a north facing alpine feature near Blackcomb: Natural cornice fall triggered a slab below, but it did not step down to deeper layers.

Rapid snow and wind loading occurred last week. The storm snow (70-140cm) fell in fluctuating freezing levels, creating storm snow weaknesses which have mostly settled out by now. The rain (or snow high in the alpine) started to saturate and load a wide variety of previous surface conditions. Simply put, the upper snowpack is extremely variable and given the amount of recent snow, it remains a question as to how well it has bonded to the old, cold surface in the alpine. Of most recent concern is touchy pockets of wind slab that developed Friday on northwesterly features above 2000m.