Coquihalla
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wet Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wet Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 1st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Feb 28th, 2025Mixed conditions up to Alpaca
Road to ottomite was pretty great. Forest to about 1600m was not great, scratched my bases to hell and back. Above open trees skied great. Snow was soft and nice til Llama, but from there to Alpaca lots of wind-effect, cracks in the snow, and unpleasant riding. Ski pen was up to 20cm, trail breaking was exhausting 😅
tarfeef101,
Monday 8th January, 2024 12:10AM
Nak peak zone
tiedje,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 9:10PM
Zupjok - almost ready
Trail to zupjok/iago/ottomite junction is filled in really nicely, minimal creek exposure. Lots of snow at the peak. Skiing through the trees unfortunately is not in yet. My partner and I scraped both our bases, lots of hidden sharks. Give this one another storm or two and save your bases.
Beautiful view at the peak. Fog/clouds coming and going. Wind affected crusts at the peak and ridge line toward alpaca. Signs of reverse loading as well. Slight signs of instability at the peak and ridge line only, no signs otherwise.
Kelly Hao,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 6:30PM
Great Conditions on Zoa
Great skiing with some wind effect in exposed areas. No new reactivity was observed on the crust under the new snow which is down 25-40cm. See yesterdays Min for report of skier accidental in the same zone. Most places skiing well above 1600m. Below 1600m early season hazards still exist.
davidellison.604,
Sunday 7th January, 2024 5:40PM
Storm Slab Avalanche Zoa Northeast Aspect
michael.kennedy,
Saturday 6th January, 2024 5:50PM
Gathering of the masses
The weather many of us have been waiting for. Busy day up at Zoa, coverage certainly improving with this bout of weather. Still lots of little tree bits poking out through the pipeline but another good storm should cover most of that. Coverage seemed pretty good overall around the sub peak area. Snow was nice and soft, couldn't feel the crust underneath.
Cole DeFehr,
Saturday 6th January, 2024 3:30PM
Tempest Touring
Winter is here! Strong winds with extreme gusts and blowing snow all day, from valley bottom to ridgetop. Skinned from Needle Peak parking lot. Low-tide conditions remain even with recent snowfall and falling temperatures. Open creeks, alders, exposed rocks, and downed trees at all elevations. Arduous travel conditions, exercise extreme caution when riding especially where snowpack seems deeper. Only 110-120cm depth @1800 m, though highly variable due to alpine winds.
~15cm of low density, dry snow atop a hard crust below 1500m on N aspects. ~30cm of wind affected, low density snow on all aspects above 1500m. Storm snow became increasingly slab-like over the course of the day. Wind affect on all aspects above 1400m. No natural or skier-triggered avalanches observed during the day. We avoided steep, wind-loaded alpine terrain.
FacetHound,
Friday 5th January, 2024 9:10PM
Flatiron area
Heavily wind affected slopes in the alpine on all aspects. Extensive wind transport providing for deep powder. Cohesion of some surface snow observed. No avalanche activity witnessed. Wind gusts and sustained high winds near ridges. Depth at location 120cm. After this storm cycle excellent powder conditions will be up there but first 1.5km of the uptrack is icy and challenging.
brian.thornburn,
Friday 5th January, 2024 8:20PM
Thar couloir
Went up most of thar north couloir, turned around at a pretty thin rocky step at a choke 50m or so from the top. could go further but not skiable. Majority of the chute goes but would benefit from some more snow, exit is super thin with quite a few rocks and alders poking out. Skinned west up behind yak/nak where it was quite thin, lots of exposed rock, creeks, etc. snow was quite heavy and wet, no signs of instability. Exit was a little thin and harrowing - the theme of the day
cameronmarchant,
Friday 29th December, 2023 8:00PM
Zoa morning lap
Skinned from the parking lot. Snow was hard and compact until you enter the trees. Above that there is a nice few inches of powder on a crust. After 11am it warmed up and was starting to get wet
milesrudka407,
Thursday 28th December, 2023 2:20PM
Zoa Boxing Day
Quick boxing day tour up the Zoa ridge system, started late at 11am, carpark temp @ 0C°. Pipe line filling in, with some waterbars and sharks still visible, temps warming as we entered dense trees, with bombs starting to drop. Great snow from subalpine up, with around 20-25cm of new snow above a crust on NW aspects. No signs of instability. Dug a quick pit off subpeak with ECTX results.
ahdpage,
Wednesday 27th December, 2023 11:00AM
Dust on crust
In the ski terrain on the north side of Zoa peak, we observed SH crystals 5mm ish in size sitting atop 10cm of facetting powder. Below this is a crust supportive to boots and skis. Very limited previous wind affect was observed at ridgetop.
We skied the lowest angle terrain we could find for best ski quality.
daniel.freeze,
Sunday 24th December, 2023 6:50PM
Crusts Galore
SkiVM,
Saturday 23rd December, 2023 5:30PM
All the schmoo you can ski
Skinned up to Zoa sub peak. Wet heavy snow, light drizzle the whole time. Skiing was exhausting. No avvy activity.
brian.thornburn,
Friday 22nd December, 2023 9:50PM
Powdery crust on north aspect of zoa subpeak
Kelly,
Wednesday 20th December, 2023 1:30PM
Iago Corn
Headed up to Iago around 8:30 to try and find some corn and were greeted by spring conditions. The access road is pretty thin along the highway with lots of melted/melting sections (although it was still passable/skiable). Creeks are still open and flowing but easy enough to cross. We started skinning on a fairly supportive crust which gradually thawed throughout the morning, especially on solar aspects as expected. As we gained elevation snow depth did increase, but never seemed to exceed a meter even on polar aspects. Rain runnles were observed all the way up to the summit.
We dug a quick pit (mostly to refresh skills) didn’t observe any red flags and proceeded to ski the Iago north bowl as planned. The top 10-15cm was corn on top of a supportive crust and skied relatively well. The ski out below treeline was sporty but doable and the road skied surprisingly well. All in all a pretty ok early season day with some good weather and nice views
olsonizak,
Sunday 17th December, 2023 8:40PM
Zoa Snowpack
layne.r.mckenzie,
Wednesday 13th December, 2023 4:10PM
Zoa Sub-Peak Snowpack
Skied Zoa today. Just enough coverage to skin from the car and ski back to the car. Weather was generally cloudy with periods of clearing skies and periods of light rain. Toured to 1800m ish on the subpeak before Zoa and never broke through the snow line. Snow was heavy and wet on top of rain crust but good enough for a second lap.
seton.kriese,
Sunday 10th December, 2023 7:00PM
Smash potatoes today, maybe some corn snow next weekend?
It rained the entire time we were on the Coquihalla today (10am-3pm), as far up as the top of Zupjok-1840m (possibly higher).
15cm of smash potatoes snow on top of the previous rain crust. It was surprisingly skiing better than expected, thank you for the rain crust we were able to keep some speed. But we still went home after one run.
The surface of the snowpack might turn into a new crust on top of a crust if temperature go below zero tonight.
We skied Iago peak. The bowl is surprisingly well filled in with snow depth of 110cm at the ridge.
(I apologize for not taking any photos, I don’t have a waterproof case for my phone.)
carolafond,
Sunday 10th December, 2023 5:50PM
Zoa pipeline
Super mellow day. Nice 10cm of fluffy powder ontop of a now cement crust. Skiing the pipeline was lots of fun.
jeremiejackparisien,
Saturday 9th December, 2023 1:10PM
Ottomite Trail
We rode the trail. And did some ski cut test on slopes. We found the snow pack released quite easily at 20cm down with shooting cracks moving away from where the snow collapsed.
jeremiejackparisien,
Sunday 3rd December, 2023 7:00PM
Nak Peak
We went out for our first backcountry ski of the season today! We skinned up to the saddle between nak and thar. The snow pack is very thin below 1600m, above 1600m the snow depth ranged from 60-90cm and a couple pockets with 100cms. Travelling through the alders took a very long time. They are not covered at all, other than hitting a couple rocks on the lower elevation slopes it was a good day!
wkanigan,
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 9:38PM
Thar mush
<p>Best skiing was 1800m down to 1600. Above was cloudy and below was mush. Triggered a size 1 Avalanche on exit about 1400 m on a steep slope.</p>
jmcconville,
Sunday 23rd April, 2023 9:50AM
Iago cement
<p>Snow was very wet to 1700 m on all aspects and skied ok for the first 150 m but horribly below that. Stayed away from steeps, but another party on the Needle side reported wet slabs going to 10-15 cm. It was 12C at the car. Sun didn't come out by the time we left at 4PM.</p>
albertocsanz,
Saturday 22nd April, 2023 7:10PM
Spring skiing on Thar
<p>Skied Thar, descending over the thar-nak col and exiting at falls lake.
Left the falls lake parking lot at 9 summited thar by 11:15. Wet snow the whole way on summit on a mostly supportive crust on the south side of thar. Occasional areas where the snowpack is getting pretty isothermal and losing strength. Made for difficult skinning. The top 10 cm slid out from under skis lots. (But wasn’t running) saw some pinwheeling lots of old loose wet debris but no recent slides. Suspect if the cloud didn’t come in late morning afternoon would have seen loose wet avalanches
The north side of the col was a mix of powder and wind affected snow on top of a supportive crust. No signs of instability.
Top notch survival skiing in the bottom half, dodging frozen pinwheels and point release debris. </p>
daniel.piccininni,
Saturday 15th April, 2023 4:20PM
Flat Iron
<p>Wet wet wet, tons of pinwheeling the size of ovens in the forest. Do not recommend unless skiing in mashed potatoes is your vibe </p>
roxyy.13,
Saturday 8th April, 2023 10:30AM
Snow Ball Hill Coq Snow Area
<p>Snowball hill looking off the top. The hill has massive snowballs forming and rolling down the hill. No Avalanche signs yet. Was trying to snow/rain when we were in the area. </p>
simon.rizzardo,
Saturday 8th April, 2023 8:10AM
Thynne Mt Master bowl
<p>Warming alpine temps are causing natural slides</p>
simon.rizzardo,
Saturday 8th April, 2023 8:00AM
Iago
<p>Nice blast of late season powder on the Coq. 30-40cm+ plus of fresh depending on aspect/elevation. Snow was on the heavier side so uphill travel was slow. Nice skiing and no signs of instability or wind transport on north aspects. Top layer of snow was melting in sunny areas which may mean a thin crust has formed. Still great snow coverage overall.</p>
wes.kubo,
Monday 3rd April, 2023 10:20AM
Sz 1 below Nak
keltiehicks,
Saturday 1st April, 2023 6:20PM
zoa peak
<p>Good skiing on the North aspects of Zoa and the subpeak. Warmed up in the afternoon quite a bit once the sun came out.</p>
eddie,
Monday 27th March, 2023 2:30PM
Thar bail, nak bowl ascent, nak-thar col descent
<p>5cm of snow ontop of solid 4 inch crust made for near impossible up hill travel conditions on steeper aspects. Bailed ascending Thar and rode down then moved over to nak bowl ascent where travel was still difficult and at times boot packing was 5x more efficient. Ski crampons probably would have been perfect. Snow conditions for skinning improved drastically above the fog line. Large cornices seen on nak and wind slabs on southern aspects of nak. Flat light conditions at the nak-thar col were gnarly. But improved at the yak nak col junction. Great riding conditions on North facing aspects. Sloughing but no signs of other instabilities. Evidence of old avalanches running to the skin track exiting to falls lake. </p>
matt-johnson1989,
Sunday 26th March, 2023 9:00AM
Flatiron
<p>Amazing day out on Needle & flatiron. We skied the bowl directly N of needle, and the run from the S subsummit of Flatiron. North and NE facing slopes didn't seem to melt; all other aspects will likely have melted a bit and will have a crust start to form. Not quite as much solar effect on the snow as I expected - but several natural wet loose & a couple glide slab avalanches happened on the big S face of Yak across the valley. </p>
mikfriesen,
Friday 17th March, 2023 9:40AM
Zoa Size 1.5
cameronmcintosh05,
Tuesday 14th March, 2023 2:40PM
Zoa pow
<p>Started out with a bluebird morning and finished with a blizzard by 3pm as expected. South slopes climbing up were crusty and wet but the north aspects off Zoa sub and main summits were great riding. Not too deep, and nice and fast. No wind slabs observed, no sign of recent naturals, though lots of glide cracks showing. </p>
andrew.moldovan1991,
Sunday 12th March, 2023 8:20PM
Thar Peak
<p>Headed to Thar Peak and the riding wasn't half bad - some light snow over a crust. It was our first time here.
Spotted three old avalanches that looked to be natural - one near the skin track up, one quite far away, and the other off a cliff on Nak Peak.
We also dug a pit and the snow had good stability, the first layer (sun crust) ECT at 11 but after that stable - probed our way up the mountain and hit from 225cm - 290cm </p>
kayla.etreni,
Sunday 12th March, 2023 4:00PM
Needle Ridge
FacetHound,
Tuesday 7th March, 2023 11:30AM
Nak Tour
<p>Out for a quick tour around Nak Bowl and partway up Nak Shoulder. Snow was generally wind affected and somewhat dense; mostly thin wind skin with isolated areas of pencil hard slab, however, was still able to generate a few face shots. Observed signs of several recent storm slabs that stepped down to persistent slab layers on E/SE aspects around Nak. </p>
a.shimmering.crystal,
Sunday 5th March, 2023 10:00PM
Iago Bowl
<p>Great day at Iago Bowl, snow was almost too deep to ski. We did not witness any instabilities in the area. The sun came out in the afternoon and significant sluffing occurred on south facing aspects. Only sign of avalanche activity we saw was the usual rock pull/glide slides on yak.</p>
dylanpaterson85,
Sunday 5th March, 2023 9:30PM
Wind pockets on crust at Flatiron
<p>At high elevation, mostly hard crust with some pockets of wind transported snow. Any loose snow or crust pieces slid very easily on this crust. Some soft snow in isolated wind drifts in the alpine, nice soft snow in protected trees further down into the bowl. Ski out through steep dense trees was deep, heavy powder</p>
CTse,
Sunday 26th February, 2023 12:20PM
Iago North Bowl
<p>Started the day -6at the car. Ridge winds seemed moderate and minor snow distribution was starting to occur from south to north ish. Opposite of the wind due to the earlier arctic front this past week. Ridge had pockets of stiff hard slab to soft, all varying through little micro features. The initial bowl entrance was somewhat stiff but softened quickly further down. Overall the turns were very fun and we had no complaints.
Did see a size 1 on an east aspect of Great Bear that looked 24-36hrs old. Start zone was below a rock feature. </p>
Cole DeFehr,
Saturday 25th February, 2023 8:40PM
Fat boi cornices on Nak
<p>Some pretty big honkers forming on the summit ridge of Nak. When these guys drop the beat during next little while, they ain’t gonna be playin any tunes I wanna be near enough to hear. Choose your route to Nak-Thar col accordingly 👍</p>
j0hnt3nnant,
Saturday 25th February, 2023 5:00PM
Zoa Sastrugi Skiing
<p>Conditions were amazing in the trees and lower half of the pipeline, everything else was scoured by the recent winds. Could see some pretty extensive crowns across the valley (first picture.) Around the sub summit, some areas had ski pen of ~20 cm, others had an unbreakable wind crust about 2 cm thick, boot pen ~30 cm in the softer areas. In dense trees, ski pen was closer to 25-30 cm.</p>
juststoke24,
Friday 24th February, 2023 5:20PM
Alder on Fast Forward
<p>Dug a pit at 1500m on a 35 degree slope west aspect. CTM14, 45cm down planar likely wind slab. CTM18, 105cm down non-planar. Given this information we skied mellow slopes down to the bottom. No signs of instability or avalanches in the area</p>
pgalbraith2,
Thursday 23rd February, 2023 2:30PM
Wade Kanigan
wkanigan,
Wednesday 22nd February, 2023 12:20PM
Falls Lake
<p>Compression test results:
CTM 12 sudden planar break at 20cm depth.
CTH 21 Sudden Planar break at 50cm depth.
CTH 25 Sudden planar break at 80cm depth.
3 layers of concern. Each broke suddenly and had a very smooth sliding surface. Definitely a large concern. </p>
gnewall4,
Tuesday 21st February, 2023 1:00PM
Zoa was reactive
<p>Dug a pit just below the sub peak as a decision point before crossing to the true summit. The column test showed a reactive layer at 20 cm and another at 40 cm. CT 28 hard. However an extended test will a skier separated the layer very easily. We used the results as an indicator to turn around and return to the treeline.</p>
jmcconville,
Monday 20th February, 2023 12:40PM
Cliffband below North Needle mostly water ice, not filled in. Needle bowl skiing well.
<p>3 Ski cuts near ridge top of Needle Bowl above Needle Creek failed to produce anything larger than <0.5 slabs (pic 3). Bowl skied very well.
Evidence of recent cornice fall in Needle North Bowl, did not cause an avalanche (pic 2)
Water ice along the cliff band below Needle North Bowl makes it impassable. (The purple line in the Baldwin map is ice). I included a picture but it doesn't do a justice (pic 1). Navigating around this cliff band is a tad tricky. Probably best to just skin back up to ridge top and ride down the ridge. </p>
lionel.d.jensen,
Sunday 19th February, 2023 8:00AM
Thar
<p>Compression test: 15cm storm slab @ 2 - planar, 35cm layer @ 24 - non planar, 85cm layer @ 28 - planar. Snow depth: 3.2m.
Evidence of major propagation in the 85cm persistent weak layer.
Minor reactivity skinning up with small shooting cracks through the most recent storm layer.
We skiied the SE ridge and had a great day with lots of soft deep snow. </p>
wesvancamp,
Saturday 18th February, 2023 9:30PM
Iago Ridge
<p>Lots of fresh on the ridge to Iago. Very little wind effect, no precip all morning, light breezes, mild temps below 0. Ski pen was ~15 cm, boot pen ~30-35 cm below treeline. At treeline on the ridge, ski pen ranged 10-20 cm, boot pen still ~30 cm. Could feel the last crust about 30-40 cm down in different areas with my ski pole.</p>
juststoke24,
Saturday 18th February, 2023 2:50PM