Dashboard Regions Weather Stations Radar Alerts Glossary
Contact About
Log In

Register for an account and never miss a forecast again!

Register

Big Y

Published
Jan 18th, 2019 12:17 PM
davidmorisette
Vancouver Island
Details

Type

quick

Coordinates

59.617050, -134.990150

Quick Observation

Went to check things out in Big Y last Friday. Wind effect from the past week getting more and more widespread although there are still pockets of good snow to be had if you search for it. The main valley is heavily wind affected and scoured with hard snow (sastrugi, wind slab, scoured to crust) making for not so pleasant travel above treeline. North facing glacier in high alpine and espcially below sharp ridgeline still holding good snow. We saw evidence of numerous old avalanches (estimate 5 to 7 days old or more due to the lack of new recent snow) on north east to north west slopes. All of them were originating from shallow areas and steep slopes immediately below ridgeline. I suspect they were windslab that formed during the last storm cycle with strong south winds. Although some of those avalanches appeared to be of decent size (up to size 2) none of them triggered anything on the deeper snowpack areas below (glaciers). overall snowpack appears thinner in this area compared to west of the highway.