Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Monday: Snow heavy at times, accumulations from Sunday night through Monday 30-40cm / Moderate to strong southwest wind / Alpine temperature 0 / Freezing Level 800m Tuesday: Flurries or scattered showers at lower elevations, accumulations 5-10cm / Moderate to strong west wind / Alpine temperature of 1Wednesday: Cloudy with scattered flurries / Moderate to strong south wind / Alpine temperature 2

Expect avalanche activity with new snowfall accumulating Sunday night through the day Monday combined with moderate wind and warming temperatures. Last weekend two skiers were caught in an avalanche on the North Shore on Sunday in steep, rugged terrain. There's a photo on the North Shore Rescue Facebook page.

New moist or wet new snow overlies the variable old snow surface from late last week, which includes well settled snow on southerly aspects, loose snow on shaded aspects, isolated pockets of surface hoar, and sun crusts on steep southerly aspects. With the potential for buried surface hoar means storm snow weaknesses from this latest storm will take longer than normal to stabilize. An old rain crust is reported to be down 150 cm in the North Shore mountains. This layer is still failing on snowpack tests, but is likely difficult to trigger in most places now.