Avalanche danger trending up over the next few days due to another warm storm moving in from the Southwest.
Confidence
Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with light Southerly winds overnight. Some chance of flurries combined with moderate Southerly winds on Thursday, becoming snow overnight and into Friday morning. Expect 5-10 cm of new snow by Friday morning. Unsettled with moderate Southwest winds during the day Friday with freezing levels climbing up to about 1000 metres elevation. Winds becoming strong Southwest overnight and into Saturday morning. Expect 5-10 cm of new snow as the freezing levels climb up to about 2000 metres elevation.
Avalanche Summary
No new reports of avalanches. Please let us know what you're seeing out there. Submit your observations by clicking on the "Avalanche Information " tab at the top of the page.
Snowpack Summary
Conditions in the Coquihalla area are quite different to the Duffey/Hurley regions. Reports from the Coquihalla suggest there's less than 1 m of snow in most avalanche areas. On the surface, fairly widespread surface hoar development has been reported. Below this, a small amount of recent storm snow overlies a thick rain crust. In the north, we have very limited observations. That said, I expect a deeper, more complex snowpack where well settled storm snow overlies a mix of crusts and facets which formed in November.
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.