Avalanche Forecast

No new avalanche activity has been observed or reported. Please share your observations at [email protected], or with the Mountain Information Network.

Tuesday night's storm finally left about 15 cm of snow at the foot of the mountains and up to 30 cm in the mountains. The extreme northeasterly wind, with peaks of nearly 140km/h recorded at the Madeleine Mines, obviously greatly affected the snowpack. Aspects exposed to the wind were bald and the spatial variability of the snow in the leeward aspects is impressive, ranging from a few centimetres to over a metre. In the alpine, on leeward aspects, we ski on a rather firm windslab. At the treeline, the windslab is significantly softer. Unfortunately, all of this snow has been blown to areas that were severely depleted by previous weather systems, so the crust, rocks, stumps, small stunted trees, and downed trees are simply hidden by a beautiful white carpet and are just waiting for you to leave marks on your skis, or to grab your shins. The places to make nice turns are a little more available than before the storm, but still require a lot of work to get to.

Forecast for the Chic-Chocs ridges and summits.

Wednesday night: Light snow, 2 to 3 cm. Wind northeast 60 to 70 km/h. Low -5.

Thursday: Snow ending in the morning, then cloudy. Wind northeast 30 to 40 km/h. High -5.

Friday: Cloudy, chance of light snow. Wind 30 to 50 km/h from the southeast. High -5.

Saturday: Cloudy, chance of light snow. Wind southeast 40 to 60 km/h. High -3.

For more details, check out the Chic-Chocs alpine weather forecast.

• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
• Carefully evaluate steep lines for wind slabs.