Give the new snow a chance to settle and bond.
Stick to conservative terrain choices and resist venturing into complex terrain.
Ongoing stormy weather is continuing to build reactive slabs on all aspects, with the greatest sensitivity on lee north through east slopes due to recent strong winds.
Several explosive and human-triggered avalanches were reported in the Whistler/Blackcomb area on Friday. These storm slabs ranged from size 1 to 2 with some stepping down to deeper buried layers.
With continued stormy weather in the forecast, we expect slabs will continue building and remain reactive throughout Sunday.
Up to 35 cm of new snow—plus an additional 10 to 20 cm expected Sunday—now overlies weak surface hoar, facets, or a sun crust, and may be bonding poorly to these older layers.
Expect to find upper elevations quite wind-affected from strong southwesterly winds with thicker, more reactive slabs on leeward slopes.
A hard early-November crust sits 30–100 cm deep with facets above and below. With incoming snow, this layer may have the potential to produce large avalanches.
Snow depths range from 50 to 150 cm at treeline and alpine elevations, with a rapid decrease—and a transition to wet snow—below roughly 1600 m.
Saturday Night
Cloudy. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.
Sunday
Cloudy. 10 to 20 cm of snow. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.
Monday
Cloudy. 20 to 30 mm of precipitation as snow or rain at treeline. 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -0 °C. Freezing level rising to 1700 m.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 15 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1300 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
