Sea To Sky

Dangerous conditions are likely in wind-affected alpine terrain and along ridgelines.

Natural wind slab avalanches likely occurred during the height of Thursday’s storm, and these slabs will be primed for human triggering on Friday.

Earlier storms this week caused natural avalanches up to size 2.5 across the region. Additionally, a few human-triggered slabs (size 1 to 1.5) were reported, along with cornice falls triggered by explosives.

In the alpine, another 15 to 30 cm of snow on Thursday will bring total amounts from the past few days to a range of 70 cm near the coast (e.g., Squamish) to 20 cm inland (e.g., Chilcotin). This new snow is heavily wind-affected and rests on wet snow and crusts.

At treeline, mixed precipitation has resulted in mostly wet and crusty surfaces.

Lower elevations are melting out quickly.

The snowpack is generally strong and bonded, although dormant weak layers may still exist in shallow inland areas like the Duffey and Chilcotin. These are not a concern at this time.

Thursday Night

Cloudy with 5 to 20 cm of snow (greatest amounts near coast). 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.

Friday

Cloudy with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.

Saturday

Mix of sun and cloud. 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Sunday

Mix of sun and cloud. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid freshly wind-loaded terrain features.
• Dial back your terrain choices if you are seeing more than 20 cm of new snow.
• Pay attention to cornices and give them a wide berth when traveling on or below ridges.