Natural and human triggered avalanches are very likely on Thursday. Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.
Weather Forecast
Wednesday night: 25-30 cm new snow / Strong, southwesterly winds/ Freezing level beginning to rise.Thursday: 30-40 cm new snow / Strong, southwesterly winds / Freezing level rising to 1000-1500 m.(Cooler in the north)Friday: 5-10 cm new snow / Moderate to strong, southwesterly winds / Freezing level 800-1000 m.Saturday: Mostly cloudy / Moderate, southwesterly winds/ Freezing level around 1000 m.
Avalanche Summary
On Tuesday, a size 1.5 wind slab and a 1.5 storm slab were triggered by skiers west of Whistler. Heavy snow, strong winds, and warming is elevating the avalanche danger to HIGH on Thursday.
Snowpack Summary
40-80 cm of recent storm snow has buried a wide variety of old snow surfaces including stiff wind slab or wind effected snow at upper elevations, sun crust on steep southerly slopes, surface hoar(up to 10 mm) in sheltered locations. In sheltered ares where the recent storm snow is overlying surface hoar(weak, feathery crystals), you may see increased reactivity on this layer as the storm snow begins to settle into a more cohesive slab. The mid-January interface (facets) is buried approximately 100-180 cm down. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well settled (strong). However, there remain a number of facet and crust layers that are currently dormant but will require monitoring with additional loading.
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.