Snow, wind, and rain is keeping avalanche danger elevated.
Summary
Confidence
Fair - Due to the number of field observations
Weather Forecast
On Wednesday expect continued light rain or wet snow with freezing levels as high as 1600 m and moderate to strong southerly alpine winds. Thursday and Friday are looking drier and cooler with light flurries and associated light to moderate southwesterly alpine wind, possible but freezing levels back to valley bottoms.
Avalanche Summary
There are no new avalanche reports from the region. Please let us know what you're seeing out there. Submit your observations through the
Mountain Information Network.
Snowpack Summary
Light rain is saturating the upper snowpack and resulting in wet, loose, and cohesionless surface snow at lower elevations. Recent reports describe a shallow, highly variable, and wind affected snowpack with an average snow depth of 60 to 100 cm at treeline elevations. There are two distinct crusts in the snowpack; the upper crust is down 15-25cm in sheltered areas and is the current layer of concern. It's surrounded by weak faceted snow and has been giving easy test results with sudden shears and collapses. In some areas the lower crust was found just below the upper crust with weak faceted snow in between, while elsewhere the lower crust is just off the ground. The highly variable and wind-affected nature of the snowpack means that slopes on the leeward side of ridge crests and terrain breaks will have significantly deeper and more hazardous slabs overlying these weaknesses. Check out the
Bulkley Valley Ski Society Facebook page for recent observations from the Hankin and Evelyn areas.
ccampbell,
Avalanche Canada
