Northwest Inland
Avalanche Forecast
Published: Apr 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 21st, 20257000
Overall conditions were decent. Some windslab development in entrance to big simpsons. Would note that the top 150-300m of 5000 featured a 15cm melt freeze crust overtop of 30-45cm+ layer of facets - something to be mindful of in rapidly warming conditions. The rest of the way down presented 2in of fresh snow overtop a granite stiff crust. 30min walk out at bottom back to cars.
barker.dben,
Monday 21st April, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 16th, 2025Dust on Crust
A lovely tour in the sunshine up the Hudson Bay area today. We were out by noon so unable to confirm how much of an effect the April sun had on the snow in the afternoon. Surfaces were still frozen while we were out. We gave cornices a wide berth on the ridgeline, in some areas they still look quite large and fragile. More details in photo captions.
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 16th April, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 15th, 2025Sledding with Skis
A good day to take the skis for a spin up the Blunt! (Caution the road up to staging is super muddy and rutted now.) The new snow we were hoping to ski ended up being too crusty after the overnight freeze to make for good riding, so we ditched the skis in a meadow and sledded up to the alpine to look around. Our main goal was to hunt for the persistent weak layer and see if it's still a player on those high alpine north and easterly slopes. We found that it is! The crust/facet layer down 70 cm popped and failed just with isolating the column and no taps - which is spicier than we were anticipating! We also found another concerning layer of preserved surface hoar crystals buried 100 cm. It seems to us that the persistent weak layers are only an issue in very isolated areas, but it's hard to pinpoint where those are. For us, adopting a continued conservative mindset and terrain choice for high alpine north through east-facing slopes has been the way to go. Otherwise, some great views to be had and travel is easy with a supportive crust on top in most areas.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 15th April, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 14th, 2025Melting Onion
At the Onion the parking lot is fully melted, but as you start heading up the trail, there are still a few patches of snow to jump between for the first 200 meters or so. After that, the trail is in good shape the rest of the way.
Above 1300 m, there was 10-20 cm of recent snow on a hard and supportive 5 - 25 cm thick crust. The crust was thickest on south and west facing slopes that see a lot of sun. Around midday, it started snowing lightly and winds remained light to calm.
We dug two snowpits on a northeast and a south aspect at treeline (1600 m). We did not produce any significant test results in either pit. We have attached a photo of each snow pit in the photos with some information on what we found.
The snow on top of the crust was moist and sticky, making for some large rollerballs - something to look out for when the sun comes out the next few days, wet loose sluffs will need to be managed.
AvCan Northwest,
Monday 14th April, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 13th, 2025It ain't over till the bugs come out
Attempted to romance a NE couloir, but visibility above treeline was severely limited, so we enjoyed a few treeline laps.
The two east facing slopes we rode had around 5cm of new snow in the open from alpine to treeline, and 15cm in sheltered pockets around the trees. The crust below was very present while skiing, and made for some slippery skinning at times. Hand shears were soft and crumbly and we found no definitive weaker layer between the crust and the new snow.
Gave some fresh cornices and wind loaded ridges a good stomp, and there was no energy transfer across the ~24-48hr formations. Seemed like the snow temperature was increasing throughout the day alongside the air temperature, almost to the point of roller-balls as we made our exit.
Ben.Hallman,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 12th, 2025Evelyn NE Face Slide
GBSki ,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 10th, 2025Microwave Whiteout
Today, we rode up to the Microwave via the Fingers access. The snowpack is currently in a freeze-thaw cycle and was very frozen this morning, making for lots of overheating on the way up to the Microwave. Snow began falling around midday with about 2 cm of accumulation whie we were in the field, which did little to improve the riding quality. Visibility was terrible, so we did not venture very far.
AvCan Northwest,
Thursday 10th April, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 9th, 2025Takin out Telkwa
Today, we removed the Telkwa weather station for the season. That took up most of our day, so we did not make it very far. Snow below 1000 m is Isothermal and melting fast. There was a crust all the way up to 1600 m. we did not observe any avalanches.
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 9th April, 2025 3:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 8th, 2025Still on up high at Seaton
Today, we rode at Seaton Basin. Snow was isothermal at the parking lot at 1150m. The top 20-30cm of snow was moist until about 1600 m. Above 1600 m, there was up to 20 cm of cold new snow. We dug a snow pit at 1900 m on a northeast aspect and found the March 5th surface hoar down 65 cm. We were able to get hard propagating results in an extended column test. The March 5th surface hoar layer was well preserved here. There were light southerly winds throughout the day, and temperatures stayed below zero above 1600m. We observed a few old, wet, loose avalanches from the rain event over the weekend.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 8th April, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 2nd, 2025Crusty Telkwas
There may be little snow in the valley, but as you gain elevation you will find a winter snowpack transitioning to a spring snowpack.
Today in the Telkwas, we found observed crust to about 1600m on all aspects. Above 1600m the crust continues up solar aspects into the alpine.
In most places, this crust did not breakdown over the day. There was a light, northerly wind and temperatures that were cool at times.
We observed several avalanches of varying ages that occurred over the last two weeks. We suspect the most recent of these could have occurred within the last 2 days. Most avalanches were caused by cornices failing and pulling persistent slabs avalanches from the slopes below.
This weekend we are expecting warm temperatures and anticipate more avalanches like those described above.
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 2nd April, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 1st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 31st, 2025Sunny Day at the Blunt
We rode in the Blunt today and observed numerous avalanches that occurred over the last week.
All of these avalanches are suspected to have been triggered by solar input, whether they are loose wet avalanches initiating out of rocks as rocks are warmed up by the sun or cornice failures that trigger slabs on shady, north aspects.
We did not observe any obvious avalanches that occurred today, but we started to make our way home by 2pm. As the days grow longer and warmer, avalanche hazard will increase in the afternoon.
AvCan Northwest,
Monday 31st March, 2025 4:00PM
Big Simpson Cornice Fall
Hyland Backcountry,
Monday 31st March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 30th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 29th, 2025Crusty Blunt
Poor conditions in the Blunt Range. Sun and warm temperatures during the week along with winds have made for crusty and wind affected snow. Tried skiing west, south, and eastern aspects with little variability found. Snow is hard all around. Some sign of minor wet loose failures from previous days.
n.8.,
Saturday 29th March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025heck yea Hankin
Today we skied at Hankin. The road in is really really icy. The skin track up to the hut is also really icy and made for difficult skinning. Above the hut (1450 m) a few centimetres of new snow has refreshed ski quality. Below the new snow there was a thin wind slab that we did not see any reactive on during our day.
We observed previous pinweeling and small cornice failure from earlier in the week due to warm temperatures and sun at high treeline/low alpine. We noted that the previous warm temperatures did not trigger persistent slabs in this area. In a profile, we noted that the persistent layers are less defined compared to other locations in our region (i.e. Seaton and Babines). With colder temperatures, we felt comfortable taking a step out to ski a run in Cabin Bowl.
AvCan Northwest,
Friday 28th March, 2025 3:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Spring Onion
Today we went to the Onion looking for a wind lip to practice crevasse rescue. We encountered strong winds from the NE. This change in the wind direction is redistributing the snow into a reverse pattern with westerly aspects snow loaded. The alpine now has widespread wind effect on all aspects with lots of hard surfaces. We found all the persistent weak layers in the snowpack, with moderate sudden planar results on the March 5 and hard sudden collapse results on the Mid- Feb Facets.
AvCan Northwest,
Thursday 27th March, 2025 4:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Stable Sinclair
Conditions at Sinlcair seemed much more stable than what we have seen in other parts of the region. We tried hard to find the persistent weak layer, digging two separate pits: one on an east facing treeline slope and another on a north facing alpine slope but in both cases found no layers of concern. We had great views today into numerous large alpine start zones and only saw a few small wind slabs that likely occurred three more more days ago. "Sled cuts" on small steep wind-loaded slopes produced no results. The best riding was found on shady upper-elevation slopes (north and east facing) with sunny slopes being moist or crusty at all elevations. Our one concern was cornice haazard. They are quite large now. We gave them a wide berth at ridgetops and avoided lingering underneath them.
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025To Put it Bluntly...
Some very large - up to size 3, avalanches in the Seaton / Blunt Range area. We saw 4 different slabs, generally on alpine north through east facing slopes. These were likely triggered by falling cornices. One large 2.5 slab was out of a south east aspect and may have occurred during warming today. We suspect the others occurred during the sun and warming on Monday. What was really impressive was the wide propagation - up to 500 m wide for one of the avalanches. We think the failure plane was the persistent weak layer described in the bulletin.
We stuck to mellow alpine slopes and managed to find some beautiful skiing while avoiding overhead hazard from sunny slopes and cornices. The snow surface was moist due to warming below treeline, and steep sunny slopes will likely have a new sun crust after today.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Crater Lake
Nice day to go dig a pit and try and get a sense of went went on Saturday. No i didn't ski in and no i didn't ski out lol Tag lines and crampons have their place :)
Total snow depth was approx 4m. I dug to a depth of just over 170cm and got skunked by some incredibly hard layers and wanning energy. There was an approx 10cm new wind slab not noted 2 days prior.
ECT looked something like this: H3 @ 14cm, failure. H5 @ 22cm, failure. H10 @ 52cm, pop. E16 @ 80cm, drop. No results beyond that. I wasn't able to cut below 160cm as the rope saw i have got beat up by the ice layer at that depth. Seriously.
Snow temps; -6 @ 10cm, -6 @80cm, -8 @ 130 cm.
In the guts of Crater lake and the "classic lines" that feed into it, wind was zero to <5kph all day. As soon as you left the shelter of that zone it was ripping 40-50kph. This explains the volume of wind deposited snow i suppose. I'll be sticking to the trees for a bit until warmer days flush out these slabs. Skiing was .... marginal at best in this zone of HBM.
Skiing is fun. Don't forget to smile!!! :)
jordandelaney946,
Monday 24th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Boulder creek
We thought conditions were looking sketchy so opted for an exploratory mission to check out access into boulder creek area. Minimal snow up to where you leave the road, first 150m in trees thin, but snowpack dramatically deepens from there up. Conservatives terrain choices as we entered treeline. We dug a pit and found it was about 225cm deep. The March layer was 35-40cm down, the Feb layer about 90. Both layers were reactive in ECT. Large whumpf noted leaving the pit, which remote triggered a size 2 about 40m away on an approx 38 degree slope. We continued on, widespread and somewhat dramatic whumpfing was noted throughout the treeline area we travelled. North facing zone.
barker.dben,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 1:30PM
Ashman is nice
10-20cm of fresh snow on all aspects with more falling throughout the day. Next to no wind, and cloudy at ridge top limited visibility. On the south side the new snow was underlain by a thin but supportive crust. In hand shear tests on the north side we found a thin weak layer comprised of some sort of fragile crystals (maybe small surface hoar or facets) down 45cm. It didn't produce any results in a ECT. Otherwise, the snowpack is all right side up.
danielhelm.kz,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 12:00PM
Granny Classic Crater Lake
jordandelaney946,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 5:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025AST 1 at Hudson Bay
Today at Hudson Bay we observed around 1cm of new snow over a thin layer of previous wind effect in exposed areas.
We dug a profile at 1650m on a south aspect and found 2mm surface hoar down 15cm and a 10cm 4-finger layer of 2-3mm facets (mid-Feb drought layer). We had repeated sudden moderate CT results on the mid-Feb layer, down 40cm. The total snow depth was 135cm.
Notably, a size 2 avalanche came out of the back of Crater Lake on the ski line sometime during the early-afternoon. Based on crown depth from afar and the snowpack structure in our profile, it was likely a persistent slab.
There was not much snow available for transport today, winds were light to moderate from the west, and we had a few moments of in and out sun, but otherwise very little input. Unsure of the trigger, may have been natural or human triggered. We saw several parties out on the Prairie today, but did not specifically notice any parties around Crater Lake.
~Stay Wild Backcountry Skills~
made.mart,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 1:00PM
Mellow pow farming and touchy surface hoar
Jono_Doherty,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 11:00AM
Q Ball NE face
Skier intentional cornice drop in Q Ball NE face. Size 2.5 slab avalanche triggered. Some pin wheeling on steep solar aspect during the brief periods of sun. Snow on polar aspects remained cool. Signs of size 1 to 2 avalanches on polar aspects from previous storm cycle, debris buried by recent snow. No snowpack tests done other than the intentional cornice drop.
peterpan,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Micro 👋
Today at the Microwave we observed around 15cm of new snow lightly blown in over old tracks. We did not observe any recent natural or rider triggered avalanches, but we did find buried surface hoar from early-March down 40cm.
Predicting the tipping point with layers like this can be tricky. Small changes in our surface snow (more settlement, additional snow, wind effect, solar input) have the potential to build a slab over this weak layer, potentially making it more reactive.
AvCan Northwest,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 5:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Natural size 3 on King Louie - at home coffee obs
Drinking my morning coffee at home and noticed a very long, large avy running out the King Louie drainage.
The end of debris field is nearly the same elevation as the top switchback on the road, and the start zone looks to be a decent sized slab through the last thin rock band. Can't be sure what triggered it, but the high winds could have knocked something down and caught that reactive top layer forming.
Estimated size 2.5-3 with a 400-500m+ runout.
Likely failed on the March 5th layer, saw a similar size 1.5+ in passby on Monday at similar elevation.
It's going to make for a heinous ski out of there if anyone tries that line this spring!
sarahbelfordart,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 8:00AM
Natural size 3 on King Louie - at home coffee obs
Drinking my morning coffee at home and noticed a very long, large avy running out the King Louie drainage.
The end of debris field is nearly the same elevation as the top switchback on the road, and the start zone looks to be a decent sized slab through the last thin rock band. Can't be sure what triggered it, but the high winds could have knocked something down and caught that reactive top layer forming.
Estimated size 2.5-3 with a 400-500m+ runout.
Likely failed on the March 5th layer, saw a similar size 1.5+ in passby on Monday at similar elevation.
It's going to make for a heinous ski out of there if anyone tries that line this spring!
sarahbelfordart,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 8:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Buried Surface Hoar at the Onion
We rode up to 1660m, near the top of treeline, and dug a snow profile. We had repeated results on an extended column test down 20cm. These results failed on buried surface hoar layer from early March. In this area the surface hoar layer had a stiffer, wind slab above it.
It was a bit surprising to find this surface hoar layer in terrain that is so wind exposed. In the coming days with new snow trickling in and continued moderate winds, we are going to carefully assess how much snow sits above this layer before committing to steeper terrain.
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Hudson Bay Mountain NE slopes
West wind was steady during the day across the Prairie with moderate wind transport. We skied from 1670m down to 1450m and conditions transitioned from a stiffer wind effect into soft ankle deep, making for some short but sweet runs. Wind deposit thinned at timberline around the top of Angle Parking, on top of many old skier tracks into the glades.
Jason,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 1:30PM
Soft Turns at Seaton
We skied southeast and north aspects at treeline today. We observed previous wind effect at ridge crest and a thin crust on south and east aspects that was buried at the beginning of March. Today, we were carefully evaluating the depth and distribution of wind effected snow at ridge crest. We avoided steeper, more connected ridge top terrain features.
We dug a profile on an east aspect at 1600 m. The snowpack was only 145 cm here, and was generally weak and faceted, yet we did not get any results in snowpack tests. That said, we are headed into a couple stormy days. We will be carefully observing how much new snow falls over the coming days as this will be expected to increase the avalanche danger.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 1:00PM
Ashman, Man
Skied at Ashman today. Temps stayed cool throughout the day with snow on southern aspects staying cold and no signs of pinwhelling/rollerballing. At ridgecrest strong northeasterly winds have formed hard wind slab. Looking into the North/East side of the bowl looked very wind effected so we decided to ski on the south where ski quality looked better. We were able to trigger a small pocket of wind slab on a southwest facing slope just below ridgecrest. Skiing on the south was good with snow staying cold through the day.
AvCan Northwest,
Monday 17th March, 2025 8:00PM
Silvern lakes
Skied near Silvern Lakes today. It was snowing lightly in the morning with moderate west winds transporting snow. We triggered one size one avalanche with no involvement. East face at TL with a little wind loading. The March 5 SH now has enough snow load and slab properties. After this event we found a few more natural 12-24 hr old size one avalanches on another feature at a similar elevation and aspect.
lucasholtzman,
Monday 17th March, 2025 7:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Lovely at Ashman
Great boot top to knee deep snow at Ashman. Sun crust down 20-30 on South slopes up to ridgetop with slabby snow above the crust that broke out with shooting cracks on the skin track. On North and East aspects snow was great with no wind affect. We didn’t dig but got no results for ski cuts on rolls at the top of a number of small and progressively larger slopes throughout the day.
Jono_Doherty,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 6:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Blunt Q-ball
They are still hauling logs out of the blunts, so the roads remain plowed.
There is great coverage right from the truck, with 15-20 cm of fresh snow on a firm crust. Cut-blocked areas skied well, as the crust remained supportive. Alpine ridges were wind-affected, with some snow settlement under our weight.
Visibility was limited, keeping us just above the tree line and skiing southeast- and west-facing slopes, where we found excellent snow conditions.
No natural avalanches were observed.
lilka.dragowska,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 2:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Hankin - AST 2 Obs
A few observations from an AST 2 course, as we toured throughout the Hankin zone today. We found 12cm of new snow, tapering rapidly with elevation, overlying a meltfreeze and suncrust. The Suncrust on the solar aspects is into the Alpine, on the Polar aspects we founds the meltfreeze crust up to 1400m. We did a few snowpack tests - on a NE aspect in an open area, 1350m, we had a moderate compression test result down 20cm on small facets and some surface hoar over a crust. Suspect this layer formed around March 5 ? We also had a hard result down 40cm on the Feb facets. Both tests gave Pops and drops, for fracture character. Yet in an extended column test beside it, we had no propagating fractures. We also dug on a south aspect, near treeline at 1600m. Here in a very sheltered area, we had a snow depth of 160cm, and we found the bottom half completely facetted to ground. The Feb facet layer was down 60cm here, with no test results, and we found the December 7 raincrust/facet layer down 110cm, and it have a hard compression test result, but a collapse/ drop fracture character. Extended Column tests gave no results.
We had no whumpfing or cracking, we saw no recent avalanches, and a few small test slopes we jumped on had no results. The only activity we saw was some loose dry avalanches to <size 1 in very steep terrain, and some sluffing moving with our skiing, in the top 10cm . Weather was cloudy, with convective flurries, and -8c, and calm winds.
Hyland Backcountry,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Onion obs
Significant wind. Consistent winds and gusts at tree line & alpine all day. Crossloading actively happening. Good travel conditions. Nice snow in the trees. Rock sharks lurking in the alpine.
Saw a few fresh natural 0.5 wind slab on a single south facing slope. No other signs of instability even with the wind but we were very cautious.
abbydell,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Hankin
Today, we skied at Hankin and went to try to find a new location for the weather station. After spending some time doing weather station things, we dug a snow pit just above the warming hut and found 150cm of snow. In compression tests, I was able to produce hard results on the Dec facets at the bottom of the snowpack. I was not able to repeat the results in a second test. The rest of the snowpack looked well settled. We observed a natural size 1.5 avalanche in the morning bowl that had been released in the previous 48-72 hours. Skiing in the alpine looked rugged, with wind-effected surfaces and frozen roller balls speckled throughout the bowls. Skiing below the hut was decent until about 1100m then the crust fell pretty rough.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 3:00PM
Microwave Obs
We went up the microwave today and poked around for a few hours. 10-30cm of fresh on crust. Signs of recent wind. No signs of instability when side billing wind affected micro terrain and no naturals.
The underlying crust is strong and 1cm thick and icy.
Little convective this afternoon produce grople.
abbydell,
Tuesday 11th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Peeling back the layers of the Onion
Today we rode the Onion. The wind was transporting snow throughout the day with minimal loading occurring on north aspect terrain. We did not observe any fresh avalanches but evidence of cornice collapse and old slab avalanches where observed. The riding conditions are great with lots of preserved snow available. We anticipate the incoming weather will bring a little new snow and avalanche conditions will remain static. Ensure you check the Avalanche Canada website for the most current and up to date forecast
AvCan Northwest,
Friday 7th March, 2025 11:00PM
Sinclair
Today, we rode at Sinclar. Temperatures were cooler today than the last few days, with temperatures hovering around -3 in the alpine. Steep southerly aspects were pinwheeling and producing loose wet avalanches up to size one. The sun was packing a punch today, with southern-facing surfaces becoming moist by mid-day. We did an extended column test on a north aspect at 1600m and did not get any results in testing. We found the Feb drought layer down 70cm in this profile. Cornices are starting to get big, so we stayed away from any large run-outs in the heat of the day.
cerickson,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 4:00PM
Tom George
jacob.vos,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 8:00AM
Ze Blunt
Today, we rode in the Blunt. The day was overcast, and temperatures stayed just below zero. The area has received a few centimetres of snow since last week, but not enough to cover up old tracks. Visibility was good, and we observed a Size 2 persistent slab avalanche failing on the February drought layer on a south aspect at 1700m. Riding quality was okay, but there are quite a few old tracks in the area. We need a refresh!
cerickson,
Wednesday 5th March, 2025 4:00PM
Spooky whumps in the Telkwas
Today, we rode in the Telkwas. Up to 1400 m, there was a crust on all aspects, which made for a chattery ride and some overheating of the snowmobiles. Above 1400m, a layer of surface hoar has formed and was present on all aspects and elevations at treeline and above. There was still soft snow to be found in sheltered areas at treeline. We dug a snow pit on a north aspect at 1700m and got very easy results during an extended column test. The fracture propagated across the column while we were cutting out the edges of our column, not a good sign. This result was on the February drought layer down 55cm from the surface. We were also able to get an easy compression test result on this layer. We also observed a size 2 natural avalanche just down the ridge from where we dug our snow pit. We also felt a large whump while we were approaching the dig site.
AvCan Northwest,
Tuesday 4th March, 2025 4:00PM
Paleo Conditions Report
Spent 3 days out at Paleo peak. Riding quality was decent. Carvable wind pressed snow in the alpine on most aspects. Steep sunny slopes developed a crust on Monday, with small point releases but no slab avalanches observed.
We did not see any signs of avalanche activity while we were out, but there were multiple size 2 wind slabs on northwest to northeast aspects in the alpine that looked to have ran sometime on Friday or Saturday. As well as a large size 3 on steep north aspect that looks to have maybe stepped down from a wind slab. We suspect this also ran sometime on Friday due to the amount of snow on the debris. Although it's hard to tell because of the wind the area had gotten.
ches.sterling,
Monday 3rd March, 2025 12:00PM
Elliott NE bowl
Elliott NE basin had decent snow, very little wind effect. Intentional car size cornice drop triggered small slab in our line. It may not be representative of stability in the whole basin though.
Yann Bourdon,
Sunday 2nd March, 2025 1:00PM
Soggy at Hankin
Went for a day at hankin to hopefully ski trees and avoid the alpine hazard. The road into hankin is a complete sheet of ice, good studded tires and 4wd or chains highly recommended.
It rained up to ~1300m before slowly transitioning to light snow, there was ~10cm of new snow overnight above these elevations but it is heavy and wet. Temperature was rising as it got towards lunch time at the warming up.
Dug a profile on a NW aspect at 1500m. Found a windslab sitting on top of facets buried 20cm. CTE5 with a sudden planar failure. The recent 10cm sitting on top of this layer is also cohesive and fractured during cutting.
We also identified the weak layer mentioned in the bulletin buried 60cm but it was unreactive to our tests, seems like a probable layer to have a step-down to however.
Skiing was quite mediocre in the runs below the cabin, wet and heavy snow all the way down before transitioning back to the rain.
nick_k_kirk,
Saturday 1st March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche on 8
Played in the trees skiers left on 8 and then moved over to the skiers right side of the main bowl. Lead skier rode the ridge between two exposed slopes, size 1.5 avalanche propagated across the right bowl after skier reached the lower ridge. Crown 70 cm, propagated through shallow rocky area and slid on facets close to ground surface. Will upload pictures soon.
cajgaeke,
Saturday 1st March, 2025 8:30AM
10 cm of fresh @ Onion today!
We have a Special Public Avalanche Warning (SPAW) in effect because, even though riding is great in the trees, we’re concerned about large avalanches in steep alpine terrain. Today at the Onion (1600 m), we found 10 cm of fresh cold snow, with wind-loaded alpine features looking suspect. We also observed a fresh natural wind slab at ridge crest that likely ran last night or early this morning on a north aspect.
This wraps up our week in the region, and the recurring theme has been wind slab avalanches in the alpine on north, northeast, and east-facing features. Even though the alpine looked amazing in the sun this afternoon, we’re steering clear of it for now due to about 50 cm of recent snow (from last weekend and last night) sitting on a weak layer of facets from the February drought period.
Have a safe weekend, and please submit what you’re seeing, especially any avalanche activity, to the Mountain Information Network. Thanks!
AvCan Northwest,
Friday 28th February, 2025 2:00PM
Blunt Creek Exploration
We’re still avoiding most of the alpine, as it looks fat and wind-loaded from recent storms and strong winds. Riding in wind sheltered areas at and below treeline remains excellent. Heading into the weekend, there’s a Special Public Avalanche Warning in effect. While the riding is good, the snowpack needs time to settle, especially in wind loaded alpine terrain. Don’t let the lure of good snow draw you into bigger features that aren’t ready yet.
Today, we found the snowpack slightly deeper than the regional average, with 215 cm at 1600 m. Mild temperatures left the storm snow moist up to around 1600 m, but it’s dry higher up. Our test results were unremarkable, but we’ve spent little time in the alpine, where the real problem is. It’s been blowing hard out of the south recently, so there are likely some large, loaded slopes lurking up high.
TL;DR: Riding in the trees is awesome, but steer clear of those big alpine slopes until they’ve had more time to settle.
AvCan Northwest,
Thursday 27th February, 2025 4:00PM
Deep Pow and Sketchy Snowpack
The snowpack is weak and sketchy, but the riding quality is VERY GOOD, stick to the trees and mellow slopes and you’re laughing.
We’re treating the bigger slopes like poisonous snakes, giving them a wide berth because they’ve got us a little spooked. Why? Well, in the Silvern Lakes today, we consistently found 30 to 40+ cm of warm, slabby storm snow sitting on weak, sugary facets, a classic house-of-cards setup. The wind was RIPPING out of the north, further loading the lee slopes, and this problem will take time to settle down.
Luckily, in wind-sheltered areas and in the trees, the boondocking is off the chain and there’s more than enough deep pow to keep you busy, it was honestly hard to leave today!
AvCan Northwest,
Wednesday 26th February, 2025 4:00PM