Sea To Sky

Storm snow continues to settle and will need time to bond and heal. Seek sheltered areas and avoid wind-loaded pockets.

Early season hazards still lurking below the surface.

During Tuesday night's storm, there was a cycle of natural avalanches up to size 1.5. Avalanche control done with explosives produced some size 2 avalanches in steep, rocky, wind-loaded areas. Expect areas like these to be reactive to ridder-triggered avalanches.

20 to 40 cm of new snow fell Tuesday night. Thick storm slabs have formed in open terrain, while sheltered terrain will likely have deep low density snow.

New snow sits on a variety of surfaces. In the alpine, it lies on stubborn wind slabs that were formed by variable winds. There is a crust that is now 60 to 90 cm deep. There is potentially some weak snow buried beneath this crust, but there has not been evidence that this layer is problematic at this point.

Rocks and trees poke through a building snowpack that grows from 70 to 120 cm at treeline to 180 cm in the alpine. Much of the below treeline vegetation band is below the threshold for avalanches.

Wednesday Night

Clear with cloudy periods, possible trace accumulation, winds northeast 15 km/h, temperature -10 C at 1500 m.

Thursday

Sunny with cloudy periods, no accumulation, winds northerly 10 km/h, -10 C at 1500 m.

Friday

Cloudy, trace to 2 cm accumulation, winds southeast 20 - 30 km/h, -10 C at 1500 m.

Saturday

A mix of sun and cloud, no precipitation, winds northeast 5 - 10 km/h, -8 C at 1500 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Seek out wind sheltered terrain below treeline where you can avoid wind slabs and find great riding.
• Dial back your terrain choices if you are seeing more than 30 cm of new snow.
• Sheltered slopes at lower elevations will offer the safest conditions.
• Give the new snow time to settle and stabilize before pushing into bigger terrain.