Avalanche Forecast

Past precipitation amounts topped out at 90 mm on the west side of the island with snowfall amounts nearing 45cm on the eastern side. The winds continued moderate from the south west and temps began to rise on Tuesday. Brief periods of clearing and sun presented as well causing surfaces to become moist.

A ridge of high pressure to the east of the region is expected to provide a period of cooling and clearing for both Wednesday and Thursday. Beginning late Thursday night a subtropical wave of warm air and moisture, will drive freezing levels to mountain tops 2000 meters and deliver moderate amounts of precipitation in the form of rain. Wednesday: 5-10cm cm, Winds Strong easing to Moderate from the South West, Freezing levels a high of 700 meters.Thursday: Trace amounts, Winds Moderate from the South East, Freezing levels a high of 1000 meters.Friday: 20-30 mm, Winds Strong from the South West, Freezing levels a high of 2100 meters falling to 1200 meters.

**Your island bulletin continues to grow, with all the information sharing and increased traffic in the backcountry, it was time. Please review out latest Instagram and Facebook post to review the extensions to your island avalanche bulletin forecast areas. We have expanded our northern boundary to Nimpkish lake reaching to both the west and eastern edges of the island. On the South end we reached down to Lake Cowichan and captured everything in between including 5040 peak, Mount Arrowsmith, Forbidden Plateau, the Beaufort range to name a few**Be cognizant of snow conditions and utilize small slopes to test and investigate the recent storm snow and its reactionary properties.Careful and cautious route finding when transitioning from scoured areas into areas of wind loaded snow.Avoid traveling below and above cornice features as they are large and touchy.Avoid open and steep slopes during periods of warming and rain; even small loose wet avalanches will have enough mass to push a mountain traveler into gullies and over cliffs.

Over the weekend intermittent moderate snowfall and intense wind transport was observed a storm system has delivered significant quantities of snow with extreme winds from the South East. The fact that the South east wind has been so intense will likely create significant loading on North West thru to West aspects, pay particularly close attention to this aspect as it will likely have very touchy wind slabs. Evidence of extreme wind transport of snow to North aspects is at all elevations.Overall snowpack depths have been measured from 200cm to 400cm.A variety of crusts exist in the upper snowpack. Numerous snowpack tests indicate that these crusts are now beginning to bond to the storm snow.The mid snowpack has an unreactive 20cm layer of facets that can be found down 100cm plus. This layer may be isolated to areas that are sheltered and at higher elevations above 1400 meters presents as a melt freeze crust/ poly grain layer.The lower snowpack is dense and very well settled as many reports for island backcountry users and numerous snow profiles have indicated.

• Surface: Wind affected snow scoured on exposed South aspects with deep loading on North aspects. Solar aspects becoming moist 1400 meters and below.
• Upper: Storm snow and wind slabs from past storms can be found over a crust below 1500 m and over old storm snow above 1500 m.
• Mid: A 20cm layer of facets can be found down 100cm plus.
• Lower: Well settled and dense.

Moderate - Continued field observations and professional reporting. Increased MIN reports providing a range of good recreational information, much appreciated, please keep them coming.