Avalanche Forecast

High -

Friday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Winds light from the northeast. Freezing level around 700 metres with alpine temperatures of -9 in the north of the region, closer to -5 in the south. Saturday: Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries bringing a trace to 5 cm of new snow, beginning in the afternoon. Winds moderate from the southwest. Freezing level around 600 metres with alpine temperatures of -10 in the north of the region, closer to -6 in the south. Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Winds light from the northeast. Freezing level to 700 metres with alpine temperatures of -9 in the north of the region, closer to 900 metres and -4 in the south.

Reports from Wednesday include several observations of wind slabs having released naturally up to Size 2.5 on steep, convex features in the adjacent, northern part of the Sea to Sky region. These occurrences are believed to be a direct result of recent strong southerly winds.On Tuesday, a natural cornice failure triggered a Size 2.5 wind slab in the Pemberton Icefield area, adjacent to the northern part of the South Coast Inland region. Several other natural cornice releases to Size 2 were also observed on north aspects in the alpine, however these failed to trigger slabs below.Although the report is older, a Size 3 persistent slab avalanche was observed up the Hurley at treeline elevation on Friday. It likely failed on the weak layer from early February.For Friday, lingering wind slabs are the main concern. Look for these in immediately leeward features on northerly aspects in exposed terrain.

Up to 10cm of new snow fell in the south of the region on Thursday night. Elsewhere, the current snow surface consists of surface facets and surface hoar to 6 mm, as well as sun crust on steep solar aspects. Beneath the surface, 10-30 cm of recent snow overlies the widespread mid-February crust layer at higher elevations. Recent reports suggest this snow is well bonded to the crust. In the north of the region, a facet/surface hoar layer from early February down 60-100 cm remains reactive in snowpack tests but would be difficult to trigger without something heavy like a cornice fall or smaller avalanche stepping down. In the south of the region, the mid and lower snowpack are well settled and strong.