Avalanche Forecast

Poor - Due to limited field observations for the entire period

Thursday: Cloudy with snow starting in the afternoon, freezing levels shouldn't get any higher than about 800m and light winds in the morning but picking up with the arrival if the snow.

Recent reports from the Whistler area include several natural avalanches up to size 1.5 primarily on north through east aspects, as well as widespread whumpfing associated with facets sitting on top of the rain crust from early November. Ongoing avalanche activity is expected in alpine during stormy periods.

25cm of new snow in the Duffly Lake area, and light amounts in the Coquihalla area, brings the total treeline snowpack depth to around a metre throughout the region. Alpine areas likely have much more that that but also highly variable depths, while most areas below treeline are below threshold depths for avalanches. The main snowpack feature in the Whistler area is a rain crust buried early November and now down around 80cm at treeline. A weak layer of facets sitting on top of this curst recently gave very easy sudden collapse compression test results as well as moderate extended column test results that propagated across the entire column. Widespread whumpfing and cracking on this layer has also been reported. This weakness can likely be found in inland areas as well, however it is probably so close to the ground that any associated avalanche activity will likely be limited to slopes with smooth ground cover (e.g. scree slopes, rock slabs, summer firn, grass, etc.). For more information check out the telemarktips.com forum and the Mountain Conditions Report.