Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Freezing levels are uncertain on Saturday

Friday: Mainly cloudy. Winds light to moderate from the southwest. Freezing level to 1000 metres with alpine temperatures of -5 in the north of the region, -1 in the south. Saturday: A mix of sun and cloud. Winds moderate to strong from the southwest. Freezing level to 2300 metres with alpine temperatures of +4 in the south of the region, 1400 metres and 0 degrees in the north. Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Winds strong to extreme from the southwest. Freezing level to 2300 metres with alpine temperatures of +4 in the south of the region, 1100 metres and -1 in the north.

While no new avalanches were reported in the region on Wednesday, we did receive a report of a Size 2.5 persistent slab (100 cm depth) having run naturally on a northwest aspect above Rohr Lake in the Duffey Lake area in within 24 hours of the observation. Another MIN report of an older Size 3 skier-triggered avalanche north of Gold Bridge succeeds in highlighting the instability that has been a concern in shallower snowpack areas found in the north of the region. Things have been much quieter in the Coquihalla area, but wind slabs in immediate lee and unsupported terrain are expected to remain reactive over the short term throughout the region. Recent MIN reports have also called attention to loose snow running fast and entraining considerable mass in steeper terrain. This problem will be particularly relevant on northerly aspects and may be amplified by daytime warming on Friday.

SOUTHERN AREAS (e.g. Coquihalla): 10-20cm of snow from last week appears to be bonding well to an underlying thick, supportive crust up to treeline elevations. At alpine elevations, up to 40cm of storm snow fell with some wind slabs forming on northerly aspects. NORTHERN AREAS (e.g. Duffey Lake): Up to and in some areas over metre of storm snow lies on the surface, the product of a series of storms late last week. In the days during and after the storms, this snow was redistributed by moderate to strong southerly winds from a wide range of directions. This resulted in touchy storm and wind slabs forming and bonding poorly to the previous (January 16) snow surface. This surface includes facets and large surface hoar on sheltered slopes and/or a sun crust on steep sun-exposed aspects, as well as wind-affected surfaces (e.g. hard wind slab, sastrugi, scoured crust, etc.) in exposed areas. Weaknesses within the recent storm snow have been settling, but the bond of the storm snow to the previous cold snow surface from over a week ago is less reliable. Thin snowpack areas such as the South Chilcotin mountains remain the most likely to harbour this and other persistent weaknesses.