Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

Overnight and Wednesday look pretty dry, with light Southwest winds and daytime freezing levels rising up to about 800 metres. The next Pacific system is forecast to hit the coast early Thursday morning and move quickly inland. Expect strong Southwest winds and 5-10 cm of snow during the day and another 5-10 cm by Friday morning. Freezing levels are expected to rise quickly on Friday to at least 1500 metres in the North of the region and up to 2000 metres in the South combined with strong Southwest winds. The storm should continue through Saturday.

Several size 1.0 natural avalanches released in the new storm snow on Monday. On Tuesday there was a size 1.5 skier accidental near Golden with three people involved that may have released on the mid-January persistent weak layer on an East aspect in the alpine.

A thin layer of new storm snow (10-20 cm)has fallen on a variety of old surfaces, including hard crusts, breakable crusts at higher elevations, and surface hoar in some areas. A melt freeze crust can be found up to about 2200m. At higher elevations, the surface is heavily wind affected. The depth of the mid-January surface hoar is highly variable across the region and it may have been destroyed by warmth at low elevations. Where it does exist, it can be found between 30 and 70 cm below the surface. The mid-December surface hoar layer lies below a strong mid-pack down about 60 to 120cm. Both of these persistent layers have been reactive recently. The mid-November weak layer of crusts and facets can still be found near the bottom of the snowpack. It has been unreactive lately, but should be on your radar in shallow snowpack areas where there is more chance of triggering.