Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Howson, Kitimat, Nass, Northwest Coastal, Rupert, Seven Sisters, Shames, Stewart, West Stikine.
As the storm builds on Wednesday closely monitor how well new snow is bonding to underlying surfaces. Avoid slopes with freshly deposited wind slabs by watching for signs of instability like shooting cracks.
Confidence
Moderate
Avalanche Summary
A few small wind slab avalanches were reported across the region on Monday.
Backcountry users continue to report evidence of a significant avalanche cycle during the recent warm, wet, and windy weather early in the week. The majority of these avalanches were wind slabs, however, a number of avalanches stepped down to buried persistent layers, creating large, scary avalanches, like this one nearby in the Telkwa area on Friday.
If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a Mountain Information Network report.
Snowpack Summary
New snow overlays various wind-affected surfaces in alpine terrain and widespread, supportive, melt-freeze crusts at lower elevations (roughly 1900 m and below). Much of this new snow is being blown into wind slab by southwest winds.
The mid and lower snowpack continues to bond and stabilize while a number of buried weak layers remain a concern and have produced a number of large recent avalanches.
Weather Summary
Tuesday night
Cloudy with light snow, 2 to 5 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C. Moderate southwest winds.
Wednesday
Cloudy with snow, 10 to 15 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 C. Strong southwest alpine winds.
ThursdayCloudy with snow, 20 to 40 cm. Treeline temperatures -5 C. Strong south winds.
FridayCloudy with snow in the alpine, 5 cm. Treeline temperatures +1 C. Strong southwest winds. Freezing levels rising to 1000 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Wind slabs may be poorly bonded to the underlying crust.
- Avoid steep, rocky, and wind effected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
- If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
As the storm builds through Wednesday, new wind slabs will form in lee and cross loaded features. These wind slabs will likely be quite reactive given the surfaces they are forming on.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, West, North West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Likely - Very Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Persistent Slabs
A number of buried weak layers remain possible to trigger. These layers appear to be most problematic in in shallow, variable snow depth, rocky start zones. Wind slab avalanches could step down and trigger these deeper layers.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 3.5