Avalanche Forecast

Good

Synopsis: A clearing trend as a warm ridge builds over the region causing  rising freezing levels.  There is the possibility for some light precipitation Tuesday night as a cold front slides down the coast although this front will not displace the warm air.Tonight and Tuesday: Cloudy with sunny periods / Winds moderate to strong westerly / Freezing continue to rise as high as 2500m.Wednesday: Clearing with sunny periods / Winds moderate to strong westerly / Freezing level 2500m.Thursday: Sunny / Winds light westerly / Freezing levels 3000m

We've receive reports confirming a wide spread natural avalanche cycle that ran through the weekends storm. Importantly several large avalanches were observed to have released at or close to the ground, confirming a deep persistent slab problem exists in the region.

Last weekends storm clobbered the region with up to 100 cm of snow. This fell on a couple of layers of surface hoar found in sheltered terrain at and below treeline. The unrelenting southwest to south winds have formed large and touchy wind slabs in the alpine and at treeline.Although on the surface things are starting to look more a little more normal than they have it is important to remember that this latest snow fell on a fundamentally thin and weak snowpack. The cold temperatures of early December left persistent weak faceted crystals that seem to be variably reactive. At higher elevations where the snowpack was deeper, the facets likely co-exist with a crust. At lower elevations or in thin, rocky alpine features more widespread facets exist down near the ground. This makes for a low probability high consequence avalanche scenario that is more commonly associated in the interior of the province. The "wait 48 hours and you're good" Coastal mantra does not apply as these conditions are likely to persist for some time.In glaciated terrain open and poorly bridged crevasses are everywhere although now they are hiding under a meter of unsupportive storm snow.