Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Sea To Sky.
Watch for newly developed wind slabs that may be still reactive to human triggers. Be particularly careful around wind-loaded ridgelines and cross-loaded features mid slope.
Confidence
High - We have a good understanding of the snowpack structure and confidence in the weather forecast
Weather Forecast
An upper ridge will build along the BC coast overnight into Tuesday morning bringing generally dry conditions.
MONDAY NIGHT: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries, trace of precipitation, 20-30 km/h southwesterly winds, low alpine temperature -3 C with freezing level around 1300 m.
TUESDAY: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries, trace of precipitation, 10-20 km/h southwesterly winds, high alpine temperature -3 C with freezing level around 1300 m.
WEDNESDAY: Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries, accumulation 3-5 cm, 15-25 km/h southwesterly winds, high alpine temperature -3 C with freezing level around 1300 m.
THURSDAY: Snow, accumulation 10-20 cm, 30-50 km/h southwesterly winds, high alpine temperature -2 C with freezing level around 1500 m.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanche activity have been reported over the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
Heavy precipitation over the last week has created a variety of surface snow conditions. Recent snowfalls with moderate to strong southwest winds have created pockets of dry snow at alpine and treeline elevations on north through east facing slopes. Precipitation fell as wet snow or rain below 2200m, creating saturated snow that is forming a melt freeze crust with moist snow below.Â
Two buried weak layers of sugary, faceted grains sit in the middle and lower snowpack, at 100 cm deep and 150-250 cm deep. The deeper layer was formed by heavy rain followed by a cold spell in early December. It is most prominent between 1700 and 2100 m. With cooler temperatures, the probability of triggering an avalanche on this layer is low but will increase when freezing levels rise up again. The most likely place to trigger it would be in thin, rocky snowpack areas.
The lower snowpack is well-settled and strong.
Terrain and Travel
- Be careful as you transition into wind affected terrain.
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind slabs have developed with new snow and southwesterly winds and may be still reactive to human triggers. Be particularly careful around wind-loaded ridgelines and cross-loaded features mid slope.
Aspects: North, North East, East, North West.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2