Holy smokely it’s getting warm on Cokely

AvCan Vancouver Island , Thursday 14th March, 2024 4:05PM

The warming has begun! We saw as warm as 5 degrees by 1 PM in the shade at 1450 m, and a blazing 11 degrees in the sun. While the wind pressed snow showed some resilience to the heat, still the top 5-15 cm of snow became moist throughout the day, with tree bombs a plenty and pinwheeling beginning on all aspects. Our snow pit showed that this area does not have the weak layer of facets that exist elsewhere on the island, and we also did not find the multitude of crust layers that we saw in the north region. Impressively, the north facing slopes were still holding dry snow at upper elevations. Even with these findings, we kept the danger rating in mind and kept to the low angle, sheltered, north aspect slopes for our day.