West Island
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Wet Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
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: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 1st, 20255040 - Klitsa traverse
<p>We did the traverse from 5040 to Klitsa Mt over a period of three days from May 1-3. The surface of the snow was soft especially later in the day. Travel on the ridges was good, some route finding challenges due to cliff bands and glide cracks. We had good skiing on the west and northwest slopes of Klitsa in the morning. We skied out the Klitsa north basin mainly in the trees. The bushwhack below the basin was horrendous.</p>
mhofmannskis,
Thursday 4th May, 2023 1:10PM
Crumble Humbled
<p>Building on a destination we've only ever accessed on skis, we thought we'd push ourselves to punch a trail up the Crumble Mountain ridge on sleds today. Hard work in tricky coastal terrain! We made it to treeline before the clock got the better of us but the remainder looks very doable.
As for conditions, we found 45 cm of beautiful, light, dry powder on all aspects (a bit heavier as the day warmed up), topped by a thin crust on sun-exposed slopes. The crust would have been quite friendly to skis as the day warmed. All this storm snow sat on a burly, 20 cm crust with moist to wet snow below it. The bond to the crust is good and this interface didn't pop out in our snowpack tests. A 30 cm-deep mid-storm interface did however give minimal (moderate, resistant) results.
All in all we were stoked to find this awesome powder sitting and waiting for us after recent cool temps and we're thinking a bit about the potential for wind slab formation if a strong enough wind gets at the snow that isn't stuck beneath surface crust.
Gold River direct radio channel should be used on the Ucona Main, which has a bunch of work rigs scattered along it.</p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Tuesday 4th April, 2023 5:00PM
Myra was on Fyra!
<p>35cm+ of fresh snow fell Friday / Friday night and seemed to be bonding to the crust below pretty well. A natural avalanche cycle occurred sometime Friday night and numerous sz 1 slides were noted on our ascent on steep terrain (>45degrees). See pic for example. Skier triggered sz 1 slides on in the North facing bowl Saturday in predictable steep terrain. Access is skinnable above 600m elevation. By mid afternoon snow was becoming heavy on sun exposed slopes below 1200m.</p>
sportnewk,
Saturday 1st April, 2023 10:40PM
Adder adjacent
<p>With the storm forecasted to hit the west coast hard, we had to go check it out. Upon arriving at Sutton pass the rain switched to snow, much to our delight. The sled ride up was quite wet, we parked around 900 m, changed to a dry shell, and headed up on foot. The initial skin up was quite tricky with the 5-15 cm of new snow sliding off the hard crust underneath in the steep terrain. We climbed up to the subpeak north of Adder and dug a pit. We found that there was 15-35 cm of new snow on the ridge that had no bond to the crust below. Beneath this crust the snowpack is the consistency of a slushy. On our ski down we found the storm slab was very touchy and quick to slide away. In some spots where the crust was less firm, perhaps where the snow was still soft from sun affect when the storm began, there was a bond to the crust but the slab was failing 5 cm above it. The ski down was tough, anything that had enough new snow immediately slid away, where there was less new snow the crust and debris underneath was challenging. It was still snowing hard when we left, looks like there is more to come. </p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Friday 31st March, 2023 3:40PM
Mt. Donner
<p>Snow was light, fluffy, and deep in the morning but got heavier by mid-afternoon. Lots of natural and human triggered wet, loose avalanching on southwest slopes. </p>
Barry Hansen,
Friday 17th March, 2023 2:50PM
Mt Crumble
<p>We ventured West to Mt Crumble to get an idea of how much new snow had fallen over the weekend on the wetter parts of the Island. Snow line for sled or ski travel was roughly 450 m and quickly deepened with elevation. We ascended to 1150 m on to Crumble Ridge and we observed no new or recent avalanches. 30 cm fell over the weekend that seems to be bonding well to the snow below but we did coax a few chunks of storm slab from steep pillows on our descent but with extremely limited propagation and we had no significant results in our snowpack tests. Winds up high were likely blowing much harder than in our area and probably building wind slabs at higher elevations. The snow height was ~275 cm at treeline and overall ski quality was excellent! Well worth the trip.</p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Monday 13th March, 2023 5:00PM
I would walk 50(4)0 miles, and I would walk 500 more
<p>We will were feeling ambitious today so we thought we would go storm hunting to have tea at the 5040 Hut. Snow line was to the highway, we sledded to the trail headed from there but some adventurous drivers punched their vehicles 4km up the Marion Main. From there it was a steep boot pack up to the shoulder where we could put skins on. All aspects that have received sun over the last couple days had a 1-3cm breakable sun crust, making the skiing and skinning difficult in places. On shaded aspects creamy turn were still to be had for all. At alpine and tree line a loose wet cycle has occurred on steep solar slopes. As with the rest of the Island, the wind effect is evident from the last storm cycle. </p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Wednesday 1st March, 2023 4:40PM
The stove is working!
<p>Good skiing on fresh snow on top of old crust and old wind slab. There was some recent wind slab higher up. We set off a size 1 on a steep slope remotely. The new snow is bonding to the old snow is some areas and not bonding to the old crust in other areas.</p>
mhofmannskis,
Monday 27th February, 2023 10:40AM
Myra
<p>Island Alpine Guides trip up Myra today. Moderate to strong south winds and poor visibility kept us at tree line and below. Moderate snowfall and the winds contributed to quickly developing 20-40cm thick windslab in immediate lee features that was reactive to skier traffic where the terrain was convex and unsupported. Avoided all big features in this treeline elevation band. Anywhere out of the ridge top wind had 20-30cm of low density powder over very supportive crust. </p>
joerschwartz,
Saturday 25th February, 2023 9:30PM
Hard day on Klitsa
<p>Highly variable conditions up Klitsa. Access via Sproat Lake. Alpine was very wind affected. Reverse loading observed but seemed to be pretty well bonded to crust.
Good turns x5. Rest was pretty terrible. </p>
roanneenglish,
Thursday 23rd February, 2023 6:40PM
In the Mist
sportnewk,
Monday 20th February, 2023 1:20PM
Who PEED on the WRONG side of the hut?!?!?
<p>Temps above zero into the alpine. Snow very wet and sticky. Lots of pinwheeling. Marion main drivable to 6.5k. Mix of mist and wet snow falling.</p>
sportnewk,
Sunday 19th February, 2023 4:00PM
Adjoining Pics - see other MIN for info
<p>.</p>
sportnewk,
Saturday 11th February, 2023 3:50PM
Beauty Fifty-Forty
<p>Cloud layer has come and gone throughout the day brining at times moisture but no rain. Solar affected slopes to summit. Expensive pinwheeling. Shades slopes holding 5cm powder on crust (breakable to boots).</p>
sportnewk,
Saturday 11th February, 2023 3:00PM
On Cloud 5040
<p>Temps remained above 0 over the past 72 hours. Following Friday’s monsoon we were socked in aside from a short 1h window where views were great and the sun came out. No human triggered slides. Small natural slides occurred on steep slopes likely pinwheel triggered.</p>
sportnewk,
Sunday 15th January, 2023 10:20AM
5040mm of Rain
<p>Didn’t quite get 5040mm but it makes for a good MIN name. ECMWF called for 111mm today and I think we got every drop! Snowpack soaked to the summit. Heavy winds. No signs of instability or recent avalanches seen so far. Road has started melting out and drivable to 4km with 4x4.</p>
sportnewk,
Friday 13th January, 2023 3:10PM
Mount Adder
<p>Checked out conditions at Mount Adder. Skinned to the top of cut block/logging road (850 metres) from the highway (160metres). There was snow from the highway. Rained the entire way until the last 50m of elevation with some wet flurries. We stayed on the logging road the entire time, coverage in surrounding areas was not great. Snow was very heavy with surface crust forming on higher elevations. </p>
13emilycollins,
Monday 9th January, 2023 7:20AM
Riding in the Rain
<p>Our initial plan to head up Mt Arrowsmith was foiled by the dreaded Cameron FSR, even with 4x4 and chains the road was a skating rink covered in running water. We decided to head further west and venture towards 5040 Peak. We encountered rain/snow to valley bottom and a fully saturated snowpack. On the plus side, we were able to travel on snow from the highway! We rode up to 640m and enjoyed some travel in the rain. Visibility was poor, and where we turned around we observed the freezing level to be ~800m. While all of our crusts seem to be melting down here, we suspect they still exist at higher elevations. </p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Thursday 29th December, 2022 4:50PM
My oh Myra, you're looking thin!
<p>We went to Myra today to check out the snow in the west and to try to get some eyes on the alpine. It was a nice change of pace to have the snow connect from Tennant lake to the bottom with only a couple of precarious creek crossings. The alder is still out in full force on the road, with a snowpack of about 50cm at the trail head and around 95cm just above the lake. We could feel the above freezing layers while heading up the trail in the morning, but by afternoon it was much warmer down below. We enjoyed the built-in cooling system on our way up the trail by way of tree bombs and dripping from the branches. Above 850m the snow remained dry today, while below that the surface became moist and the snow was much heavier. For early season safety's sake, we stayed off the lake.
We dug a pit just above the lake and got a hard sudden planar result down 70cm on the 10-25mm buried surface hoar, but did not see the same results in an extended column test. Sitting on top of our most recent storm snow is some new surface hoar that is about 6-10mm in size. We did not find any of the facets that have been evident in the east and the north zones near ground level. The top 20 cm of snow is still quite light for excellent skiing, but a little bit of effort for trail breaking. On directly solar south facing aspects, there was a 5cm surface crust sitting under the surface hoar. </p>
AvCan Vancouver Island,
Thursday 15th December, 2022 5:00PM
Deep at 5040
<p>Lots of snow on Marion main - had to skin from the highway.
1.25m depth at 1150m
Crown line from storm slab found slightly below cobalt lake (see pic). 20cm crown 20m wide. Likely happened overnight.
Ski penetration 40cm+
Temps rose above 0 in the alpine and mist saturated the snowpack making heavy wet sloppy snow.</p>
sportnewk,
Saturday 10th December, 2022 7:20PM