Avalanche Forecast

Good

Saturday: Expect snowfalls to taper under northwesterly winds. As winds shift to northeasterly late in the day we could see some convective flurries. Temperatures could reach -9. Sunday & Monday: Expect a clearing trend, with light northerly winds and temperatures reaching -8 in the afternoon.

Natural avalanches up to size 3.0 and ridder triggered up to size 1.5 has been observed. these have been predominantly on north through east aspects at treeline and in the lower alpine.

Over the past week up to 40 cm of new snow fell over the Duffey Lake area, this snow fell incrementally and low density. The Coquihalla has seen up to 50 cm. This new snow has buried a variety of old snow surfaces. The old surfaces include: melt-freeze crusts on all aspects below 1700m and on steep solar aspects higher up, surface hoar (feather like crystals), old wind slabs, and facets (sugary crystals), which exist on north aspects as well as around crusts. I suspect these buried weak layers will become naturally reactive with forecast snow and wind, and the slopes that don't slide naturally may be ripe, waiting for a rider trigger. Below this sits a well settled snowpack, with treeline snowpack depths near 250cm. Test results on the Duffey yesterday shows RB5 - whole block down 22cm, sudden planar results. The warning signs are clear and a large avalanche cycle has started in the interior regions. Please visit our Forecaster's Blog for more detailed information. To view recent photos of this buried surface hoar in the Coquihalla area please check out this link: http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/library/avalanche-image-galleries/avalanches2012