Snow continues to fall and storm slabs continue to grow deeper at higher elevations. Watch for changing freezing levels and conditions that change with elevation.
Weather Forecast
Snow continuing on Sunday night with another 10-15 cm expected at higher elevations. A chance of broken skies on Monday morning combined with a brief rise in the freezing level to about 1300 metres. Northwest winds developing during the day on Monday with little or no precipitation expected. Cloudy with moderate northwest winds on Tuesday and freezing levels around 1000 metres. Snow starting on Wednesday combined with moderate to strong southwest winds and freezing levels rising slightly to about 1200 metres.
Avalanche Summary
No recent avalanche observations reported. If you have been out in the mountains, please submit your observations to the Mountain Information Network (MIN).
Snowpack Summary
Cypress, Grouse, and Seymour were all showing about 10 cm of new snow by late Sunday morning with freezing levels around 1200 metres. This new snow at higher elevations continues to add to the developing storm slabs in the region. There is about 80-100 cm of snow at treeline, and above that the snowpack quickly deepens to close to 2 metres where most of the recent precipitation has been snow. The upper snowpack is likely moist and heavy with deep wind drifts on leeward slopes. Some reports told us that downhill travel was difficult in moderate terrain due to the deep and heavy storm snow. A thick crust can probably be found down around 50cm at treeline elevations, and down more than a metre in the alpine.
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.