Avalanche Forecast

Low - Due to the number of field observations

Wednesday is currently expected to be mainly dry with a chance of sunny breaks. Alpine wind is expected to be light to moderate from the southwest and freezing levels are expected to be around 1300 m. The next pulse of precipitation is expected to arrive Wednesday overnight or Thursday morning and 30-40 mm is currently forecast between Thursday morning and Friday morning. Ridgetop wind is expected to be moderate from the southwest on Thursday with freezing levels around 900 m. Friday is currently forecast to be mainly dry with the next storm system arriving Friday overnight or Saturday morning.

No new avalanches have been reported, but it should be noted that the warm, stormy weather has been discouraging backcountry travel and obscuring visibility into alpine terrain so observations have been very limited.On Wednesday, stability is generally expected to improve as temperatures drop. However, if the sun comes out, it can quickly destabilize the snowpack on sun exposed slopes. In the high alpine above the rain line, any recent storm snow is expected to remain touchy, especially in wind loaded terrain.

Heavy rain has saturated the upper snowpack at all but high alpine elevations after roughly 50mm of precipitation fell over Sunday night and Monday morning. Any new snow that may have accumulated at high alpine elevations is likely to remain reactive to human triggering over the short term. At higher elevations, lingering potential may exist for loading from rain or snow to promote reactivity at the late February interface, roughly 1.5 metres deep. This layer is composed of a sun crust on southerly aspects and surface hoar on shaded aspects. An avalanche on this layer would be large and very destructive. No concerns exist below this interface and the snowpack at treeline and below is generally well settled and strong.