South Coast Inland

Conditions are primed for people triggering avalanches. Don't let the lure of deep powder draw you into terrain that's inappropriate for the conditions.

Unsettled weather and seasonal temperatures for the weekend; a mix of sun and cloud for early next week. SATURDAY: Mainly cloudy with the possibility of isolated flurries, light south wind and freezing level remaining around 1200m, but cooler overnight temperatures. SUNDAY: Mainly cloudy with flurries bringing 3-8 cm, freezing levels around 1200m with moderate to strong southeasterly winds. MONDAY: A mix of sun and cloud. Freezing levels around 1200m with light northerly winds.

Moderate -

We've had a widespread natural avalanche cycle this week, including a spooky Size 3 early Thursday morning that buried the Duffey Lake road 5 metres + deep. Reports from Wednesday and Thursday included widespread natural slab avalanches up to Size 3 with crowns up to 80 cm thick. A remotely triggered 70-185 cm thick Size 2 wind slab was also reported. It was triggered by a skier 5 m away on the ridge. Lastly, below treeline areas up the Lillooet / Meager drainages have been very touchy and danger is likely to remain higher in this zone.

SOUTHERN AREAS (e.g. Coquihalla): 10-20cm of fresh snow is likely bonding well to the previous rain-soaked snow surface up to treeline elevations. At alpine elevations, touchy fresh wind slabs are likely forming.NORTHERN AREAS (e.g. Duffey Lake): Up to 45 cm of fresh snow by Friday morning brings the storm snow totals to over a metre, which was all redistributed by moderate to strong southerly winds. This has resulted in touchy storm and wind slabs bonding poorly to the previous snow surface that includes facets and large surface hoar on sheltered slopes and/or a sun crust on steep sun-exposed aspects, as well as wind-affected surfaces (e.g. hard wind slab, sastrugi, scoured crust, etc.) in exposed areas. Weaknesses within the recent storm snow are likely also highly sensitive to triggering.