Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind effect is extremely variable

We're in a fairly stable weather pattern with seasonal temperatures and a slight chance of flurries on Friday and Saturday. Things change significantly on Tuesday, stay tuned. FRIDAY: Sunny with increasing clouds in the afternoon (chance of flurries in northern sections). Winds light from the west. Alpine high temperatures to -10 Celcius. SATURDAY: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Winds moderate (20-35 Km/hr) from the southwest.  Alpine temperatures around  -8 Celcius. SUNDAY: Increasing clouds in the afternoon with snow overnight. Winds light southwesterly. Freezing level rising to 600m and alpine temperatures around -6 Celcius.

Several Size 2 natural avalanches were seen on the north aspects in the Hurley zone. A MIN report from Tuesday details a skier triggered avalanche involvement in our region. The avalanche was triggered in a rocky section of a steeper southeast-facing slope where there appeared to be evidence of recent wind loading. Other reports from Tuesday include several Size 1.5-2 avalanches running naturally in steep west and northwest-facing terrain in the north of the region.

The main story is widespread variability due to all the shifting wind patterns, distributing and redistributing snow over the past few weeks. 25-30cm of low density snow fell over Sunday and Monday in the southern (Coquihalla) area, while northern sections received 7-15cms of new snow. During the storm, moderate southwesterly winds distributed the new snow onto north and east aspects, forming reactive soft slabs. After the storm, winds shifted to classic outflow (northerly) patterns on Tuesday with moderate winds at ridge top. This pattern resulted in 'reverse loading' of wind slabs onto southerly slopes as far down as 2050m in the north (Duffey Lake zone) and 1700m in the south (Coquihalla area). These new, old and variable wind slabs are the primary weaknesses of concern in the snowpack. The older wind slabs from a week ago (on south to west aspects) remain a concern in our current snowpack with recent cold temperatures having slowed their healing into the snowpack.