Watch for small loose wet avalanches on sun exposed slopes Monday and avoid terrain traps like gulleys and creek bottoms at all elevations where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.
Weather Forecast
A warm dry pattern is expected for the next few days. The upper ridge will shift eastward on New Year's Day, which should allow freezing levels on the Coast to rise to around 2500 m. This pattern is expected to stick with us for the foreseeable future. MONDAY: Scattered cloud, freezing level around 2500 m, light northwest wind, no snow expected.TUESDAY: Scattered cloud, freezing level around 2500 m, light southwest wind, no snow expected.WEDNESDAY: Clear at dawn, cloud cover increasing through the day, freezing level around 2800 m, light variable wind, no snow expected.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanche activity was reported on Friday or Saturday. Warming temperatures on Monday may initiate a round of natural loose wet avalanches as the formerly cold snow is introduced to heat for the first time.
Snowpack Summary
Two successive storms produced 40 to 80 cm of snow over the last few days. Friday night's storm started as rain before turning to snow overnight. The brief period of rain followed by snow and cooling temperatures is thought to have helped the snowpack to settle and stabilize. Forecast warm temperatures on Monday should allow the old storm snow to further settle.50 to 100 cm below the surface you'll likely find a couple of melt-freeze crusts which were buried mid-December. This interface has been dormant and has not produced any recent avalanche activity. Below this, the snowpack is thought to be strong and well settled. The snowpack depth is about 160 cm at 1000 m, 220 cm at 1250 m. Many early season hazards are still present at lower elevations.
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.