Stability has improved on the South Coast, but avoid testing any unsupported wind slabs.
Confidence
High - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
Thursday: Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries bringing a trace of new snow. Winds light from the southwest. Freezing level near valley bottom with alpine temperatures to -5.Friday: Cloudy with scattered flurries and up to 5 cm of new snow. Winds moderate from the south. Freezing level rising to 500 metres with alpine temperatures to -4.Saturday: Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries and up to 4cm of new snow. Winds light to moderate from the southeast.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been observed, but ski cutting in the North Shore mountains on January 1 produced one size 1 wind slab avalanche 10 metres wide and 20 cm deep. Shooting cracks were propagating up to 2 metres ahead of ski tips on wind loaded features, suggesting touchy conditions at the time. While we normally expect a short life span these kinds of storm instabilities on the South Coast, recent cold temperatures may have slowed the strengthening process somewhat.
Snowpack Summary
Approximately 95 cm of well-settled storm snow lies on the surface after a series of storms last week. In the days following the storms, strong northerly winds redistributed loose storm snow into wind slabs behind exposed terrain features, mainly on south to west aspects. These wind slabs have gained considerable strength in recent days but remain a concern over the short term. Aside from possible wind slab instabilities in the upper snowpack, the mid and lower snowpack are considered to be well settled and stable.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.