Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations on Monday

We have a return to high pressure and arctic outflow conditions until Thursday evening.TUESDAY: Scattered flurries with skies clearing in the morning.  Moderate northeasterly winds (25-40 Km/hr), alpine temperatures  -12 to -16 Celcius.WEDNESDAY: Sunny with winds becoming light northeasterly winds (10-20 Km/hr). Alpine high temperatures near -15 Celcius. THURSDAY: Sunny with clouds developing in the late afternoon. Light southwesterly winds (10-20 Km/hr). Alpine high temperatures near -11 Celcius.

On Saturday, skiers triggered a Size 2 wind slab near treeline on Zupjok peak (Coquihalla area). The culprit was northeasterly outflow winds loading southwest aspects. See the MIN post for more details:http://www.avalanche.ca/map/forecasts/south-coast-inland?panel=mountain-information-network-submissions%2Fd9620fad-38ad-4b09-adb2-e38941dbd6d4No new natural avalanches observed.

20-25cms of low density snow fell Sunday/Monday in the southern (Coquihalla) area, while northern sections received 7-15cms of new snow. Moderate southwesterly winds redistributed the new snow onto North (east) aspects forming reactive soft slabs. Previous cold temperatures from last week and strong winds left our snow surface a mix of soft wind slabs, hard wind slabs, sastrugi, faceted snow, and even some surface hoar. These older wind slabs (on south - west aspects) remain a concern in our current snowpack and were triggered by skiers on Saturday (see link below). For low snow areas such as the Chilcotins, two other layers of concern exist. One is a weak layer of snow from mid-December buried approximately 50 cm deep and other is an old rain crust from November buried 90-120 cm deep. Snowpack tests indicate these layers may be possible to trigger in shallow snowpack areas. Elsewhere, these layers are typically much deeper and are considered to be stable.