Regions
Northwest Coastal.
With the amount of recent snow and strong winds, backcountry riding will require careful terrain consideration
Confidence
Fair - Due to the number and quality of field observations
Weather Forecast
The Northwest Coastal region should see some sunny skies and dry out a bit before the next light Pacific system arrives late Monday. Freezing levels should drop close to valley bottom overnight and rise during the day to around 1200m.For more information check out the Mountain Weather Forecast at: https://avalanche.ca/weather
Avalanche Summary
Limited observations yesterday because of the intensity and low ceilings associated with the storm. One commercial operation, however, produced impressive results with explosives and reported several size 1.5's, 2 size 2's, and one size 3 avalanche in the recent storm slab.
Snowpack Summary
Strong southwest winds will have built dense slabs on lee features, and added additional load to the previous storm slab. Commercial operators are reporting 100+cm of new snow from this recent storm !There are a variety of old buried layers that include hard wind slabs, hard crusts, surface hoar, and/or surface facets. The recent lack of large avalanches suggests reasonable bonds at these interfaces, but we I would remain cautious of steeper, high-consequence slopes. A release on any of these buried layers could be large and destructive . At the base of the snowpack, weak facets may be found, particularly on shallow alpine slopes in the north of the region. Cornices are continuing to grow and will be potentially unstable. Recent rapid loading and strong winds are a major concern right now. Operators are estimating 50+cm of storm snow at upper elevations.
Problems
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.