Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

Monday: Cloudy with flurries and clearing in the afternoon. The freezing level is around 500-700 m and winds are light from the SW. Tuesday: A mix of sun and cloud. The freezing level remains near 500 m and winds are light and variable. Wednesday: Periods of snow. The freezing level is around 800-1000 m and winds are moderate from the S-SE.

There were no new reports of avalanches in the northern part of the region on Saturday. In the Coquihalla, where there was much more snow on Friday, there were reports of several soft storm slabs up to size 2 that were failing within the fresh storm snow. On Thursday, slab avalanches to size 3.5 were observed on a variety of aspects and elevations. These occurred in response to heavy storm loading from rain and snow. The mid-January surface hoar was the suspected culprit in many of these avalanches. Of note was a size 4 slab avalanche in Steep Creek in the Duffey Lake area.

In the south, 40-70 cm of recent storm snow sits on a widespread and generally supportive rain crust that was buried on Jan. 28. The bond to the crust appears to be fairly good but at least one notable storm snow weakness was observed 10 cm above the crust. Fresh pockets of wind slab may also form in immediate lee features. The combination of heavy storm loading, rain, and warm temperatures likely flushed out the mid-January persistent weakness in most areas in the Cascades. Further north, generally 20-40 cm of dry storm snow overlies the late-Jan rain crust below around 1800-2000 m. Above this elevation the new snow sits on settled storm snow or previously wind affected surfaces. Fresh pockets of wind slab are likely in exposed lee terrain. Where it still exists, the mid-January surface hoar layer is between 60 and 130 cm below the surface. This persistent weakness could be lingering on higher elevation slopes that did not previously avalanche and triggering remains a concern.