Choose mellow slopes, and avoid being under large alpine features. Dial back your terrain choices if you find more than 30 cm of new snow, conditions vary across the region.
Happy holidays!
Continuing snowfall and strong southerly winds are building reactive wind slabs at all elevations. Expect deeper, more reactive slabs in the southern half of the region, closer to the coast (around Kitimat, for example).
Two layers of surface hoar have produced recent avalanche activity. The additional load of recent storm snow will stress these layers and increase sensitivity. Avoid sheltered and shaded open slopes at treeline.
On Saturday, a size 1, skier accidental storm slab avalanche was reported near Terrace. This was on a northwesterly feature at treeline.
Professional operations in the region reported evidence of a natural storm slab avalanche cycle up to size 2.5 over the weekend.
If you head into the backcountry please consider submitting your observations to the Mountain Information Network.
Storm snow continues to accumulate daily over wind affected surfaces in exposed areas and 50 to 70 cm of settling snow in sheltered areas. Generally strong southerly winds are building wind slabs in exposed leeward terrain. South facing slopes (windward), have likely been scoured by the strong winds or have dense, wind packed snow.
Two buried layers of surface hoar are widespread in the mid snowpack, buried 50-100 cm, and 90-130 cm deep.
The remaining mid and lower snowpack contains several crusts from early in the season that are generally well-bonded to the surrounding snowpack. Snow depths are highly variable depending on elevation, and decrease rapidly below treeline.
Monday Night
Cloudy. 10-20 cm of snow expected, up to 40 cm in the area around Kitimat. Strong south ridgetop wind. Freezing level around 1200 m. Treeline temperatures approach -2°C.
Tuesday
Cloudy. 15-20 cm of snow expected west of Terrace, 5-10 east of Terrace. Moderate to strong southwest ridgetop wind. Freezing level falling to around 500 m, treeline temperatures around -5°C.
Wednesday
Mainly cloudy. 5-10 cm of snow expected, possibly 20 cm around Kitimat. Strong to extreme southeast ridgetop wind. Freezing levels around 800 m, treeline temperatures around -3 °C.
Thursday
Mainly cloudy. 15-20 cm of snow expected west of Terrace, 5-10 east of Terrace. Strong to extreme south ridgetop wind. Freezing levels rise to around 1500 m, treeline temperatures around 0 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
