Regions
Vancouver Island.
Past 72 hours, reports of widespread natural avalanche occurrences up-to size 2 mostly loose wet. Ski cutting on short steep terrain below 1500 meters produced easly triggered loose wet avalanches that gained mass on larger slopes.
Past Weather
Freezing levels breached the 1800 meter mark over the entire forecast region with precipitation in the form of rain fell with amounts between 30 and 50 mm. The warm temperatures, settled the snow pack rapidly and a natural avalanche cycle occurred. Tuesday a cold front dropped freezing levels and delivered up to 35 cm of new snow.
Weather Forecast
A cavalcade of winter storms will wash over our region during the coming forecast period. The southwestern flow will continue to deliver moderate precipitation and warming temperatures with fluctuating freezing levels. Wednesday 5-10 cm, Winds moderate from the South west, Freezing levels 1000 meters.Thursday trace 20-25 mm, Winds moderate from the South east, Freezing levels 1800 meters.Friday 20-25 mm, Winds moderate from the South east, Freezing levels 1200 meters.
Terrain Advice
**Give Cornice features a large berth when travelling both below or above them.****Choose low angle terrain during storm events and avoid areas with overhead hazard.****During periods of high hazard, travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.**
Snowpack Summary
30 cm of recent storm snow now covers a very moist and at lower elevations unconsolidated upper snow pack. The mid pack has a variety of melt freeze crust with one being extremely robust and having the ability to bridge the lower snow pack.The lower snow pack is well settled and dense, with the exception of the alpine where a deep an nonreactive basal instability is possibly still lurking.
Snowpack Details
- Surface: New moist snow
- Upper: moist and settling
- Mid: A variety of melt freeze crusts can be found.
- Lower: well settled and dense
Confidence
Moderate - Fluctuating freezing levels and discrepancy within forecast models over the precipitation amounts and in what form.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.