Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Tuesday

Moderate to strong southwest winds and another 5-10 cm of new snow are expected by Monday morning. Continued unsettled weather is forecast for Monday bringing some flurries during the day. A small ridge of high pressure may provide some clearing skies during the night or early Tuesday morning with building northwest winds. Snow should start during the day Tuesday as winds continue to build and veer towards the west. Periods of heavy precipitation are forecast overnight resulting in about 15-20 cm of new snow with a freezing level of about 700 metres. The winds should calm and clock back to the northwest on Wednesday as a weak ridge passes through the region before the next Pacific frontal system approaches.

Some sloughing in steep terrain to size 1.5 and thin windslab releases mostly size 1.0

Variable snowfall amounts from Saturday night show about 15 cm close to the coast, and only about 5 cm near Shames. The region received about 10-20 cm overnight and into Saturday morning. Moderate westerly winds created new windslabs in the alpine and at treeline. There are some older windslabs on south through southwest aspects that may be stripped by the new wind or cross-loaded. There is between 70-100 cm of snow above the buried weak layer of decomposed and fragmented crystals that has been giving moderate shears in stability tests. Some areas are reporting a buried surface hoar from early February that is buried at the same depth. The weak layer may be triggered by light additional loads at treeline and below. This interface is variable, it consists of a strong melt freeze crust below 1000m, above 1000 m exists facets, surface hoar (in more sheltered areas), sun crust or wind press. The surface hoar is not widespread but is responsible for much of the larger avalanches that occurred earlier this week. Areas below treeline are quite variable. There are spring like conditions with a melt-freeze crust in some areas, and others are still experiencing winter at lower elevations.