Avalanche forecast

Sea To Sky

Feb 9, 2017Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 10 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
4 · High
Below
4 · High
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Highlights

Natural and human triggered avalanches are very likely on Thursday. Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely
    Size
    1–3
    Thursday's storm is starting cold and ending warm. This creates a dangerous condition where warmer heavy snow is sitting on-top colder snow, making storm slab avalanches much more likely.

Confidence

High -

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.

Regions covered