Northwest Coastal

With these north winds, be aware of the potential for reverse loading and encountering Wind Slabs in places you might not expect them.

Be especially cautious around treeline elevations where the recent snow is more likely to sit on top of a weak layer of preserved surface hoar.

Two small wind slab avalanches were reported from the region in the last 48hrs.

If you head out in the backcountry please support your community by submitting a MIN report!

20 to 50cm of recent snow overlies a layer of surface hoar (buried in early December), sized 5-10 mm. With north winds continuing, Wind Slabs will form on south through southeast aspects and cross-loaded features.

A layer that was buried in mid-November can be found 80 to 120cm deep at treeline and above. This layer consists of a crust below 1200m and a layer of surface hoar above this elevation. This layer has not shown any recent signs of instability.

In the alpine snowpack depths over 2 meters have been reported but the snowpack below treeline is still generally quite shallow.

Wednesday night

Partly cloudy. Trace amounts of new snow. Winds from the northwest at 30km/h. Temperature at -5˚C.

Thursday

Partly cloudy. No new snow. Winds from the northwest at 40km/h. Alpine temperatures up to +2˚C.

Friday

Partly cloudy. Flurries beginning late in the day. Winds from the northwest at 40km/h decreasing late in the day. Temperature -5˚C dropping to -10˚C late in the day.

Saturday

Cloudy. Snow beginning overnight Friday with accumulations up to 10cm through Saturday. Winds from the southwest at 20km/h. Temperature -8˚C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be carefull around freshly wind loaded features.
• Watch for areas of hard wind slab on alpine features.
• Back off if you encounter whumpfing, hollow sounds, or shooting cracks.
• Early season avalanches at any elevation have the potential to be particularly dangerous due to obstacles that are exposed or just below the surface.