Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to limited field observations for the entire period

Wednesday: Partly cloudy with no significant precipitation expected, freezing levels in valley bottoms with treeline temperatures around -5 to -10 Celsius, and moderate northwesterly winds. Thursday: Increasing cloud throughout the day with light snow starting in the afternoon, freezing levels around 500-700m and moderate westerly winds becoming strong southwesterlies with the onset of precipitation. Friday: Snow easing throughout the day with 15-20cm total since Thursday, moderate westerly winds and freezing levels hovering around 500-700m.

Recent reports include evidence of previous large avalanches from Mt Joffre at 2000m and the east face of Cayoosh Mtn in the Duffy Lake area (check out Wayne Flann's Avalanche Blog for a photo of the Cayoosh avalanche). Glide cracks are getting big and releasing to Size 2, and ski cutting has been producing heavy sluffs.

A recent Rutschblock test at 2100m on a north aspect above Duffy Lake gave an RB3 whole block release down 30cm on a storm snow weakness. The late November surface hoar was found down 70cm but unreactive to snowpack testing. A well settled and rounding mid-pack is overlaying the early November crust, which gave a moderate sudden planer compression test result in the overlying facets. Meanwhile in the Coquihalla area, recent reports suggest an overall well settled "right side up" (progressively more dense with depth) snowpack. The low density surface snow is causing a lot of sluffing in steeper terrain, but not reacting as a slab. The early November crust has not been found in the Coquihalla, although we don't have any reports from the high alpine. Conditions may be quite different in the Northern part of this region, please email us your observations if you are out in the field. [email protected]