Avalanche Forecast
South Coast Inland
New snow totals are uncertain in this weather pattern. Wind slabs and cornices are reactive to human triggers: Give both a wide berth and avoid overhead hazard.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Stay off recent wind loaded areas until the snow has a chance to stabilize.
- Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, large avalanches may reach the end of run out zones.
- Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.
Avalanche Problem 2: Cornices
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Recent snowfall and strong winds have created fragile new cornices. These monsters may surprise with nasty consequences. Use extra caution around ridge crests.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Falling cornices may trigger large avalanches on slopes below.
- Give cornices a wide berth when traveling on or below ridges
Avalanche Summary
On Saturday in the north of the region, skiers triggered a size 2 wind slab avalanche on a north east facing slope near 2050m. See the MIN report for more information.
Also on Saturday in the Duffey zone, we had reports of a cornice-triggered size 3 wind slab on a north east facing slope near 2100m. See the MIN report for more information.
On Wednesday in the Duffey area, explosives control triggered a size 2.5 and 2 size 3 persistent slab avalanches in north-facing alpine terrain. The early January crust was the culprit in all 3 of these avalanches. More alarming was a skier-triggered size 3 slab avalanche in the Birkenhead Lake area on the same day. The avalanche was triggered on a northwest facing slope at 2200m, was about 120cm deep and ran a distance of approximately 400m. Nobody was injured in the event. These avalanches demonstrate that you may be dealing with more than just the most recent storm snow in this part of the region.
Snowpack Summary
Recent snowfall totals are highly variable. In the south, up to 40cm of snow fell in the alpine over the past two days, while tree line elevations saw 10-20cm and temperatures near 0 degrees on Monday afternoon. In the north, new snow totals were 15-20cm in the alpine, and rapidly decreasing below 1800m.
In the alpine, winds were moderate to strong from the south / east (Coquihalla) and moderate from the south / west (Duffey zone), creating fresh wind slabs in exposed down wind (lee) terrain. At lower treeline and below, warm temperatures (and rain in many locations) have created heavy snow and tough riding conditions.
The new snow adds to the 80-150cm of snow that fell during the last few weeks of January. These series of storms were accompanied by strong to extreme winds which resulted in extensive scouring and impressive cornice growth in upper elevation terrain. These accumulations sit on crusts from early and mid-January which generally show signs of bonding to the overlying snow; however, they been sensitive to skier triggering in at last one recent avalanche in the north of the region (see Avalanche Activity Discussion for details).
Weather Forecast
Tuesday: Cloudy with flurries (10cm snow in the south and 5 cm in the north) / Moderate west winds / Freezing level near 1100m.
Wednesday: 5-20 cm of snow above 1500m in the south and up to 5-10 cm possible in the north / Moderate to strong southwest winds / Freezing level rising to 2000m in the afternoon.
Thursday: 5-20 cm snow above 1000m in the south and 0-5 cm in the north / Light to moderate westerly winds / Freezing level at 1300m
Note: Forecast precipitation amounts are uncertain in the south (Coquihalla) for the Wednesday-Thursday storm.
Avalanche Forecasts in your Inbox
Avalanche Canada has switched to an RSS feed for its daily forecasts. This is a much more flexible method that allows automatic delivery to your email inbox, or to an RSS reader of your choice.
What are RSS feeds?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a popular standardized file format allowing up-to-date delivery of web-based content. RSS feeds enable you to receive content updates from websites, delivered to your email through an RSS aggregator (such as blogtrottr.com) or viewed through applications called RSS readers (such as feedly.com).
Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- South Coast Inland URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/south-coast-inland.rss - Copy the url and paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS aggregator.
- Fill in your email address.
- Voila! Watch the Avalanche Canada forecast roll into your inbox.
Forecast Disclaimer
Avalanche Canada's Public Avalanche Bulletin, and other information and services provided by Avalanche Canada, are intended for personal and recreational purposes only.
**THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM DISCOMFORT, INJURY, OR DEATH, CLAIMS BY THIRD PARTIES OR FOR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS, OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.**
The user acknowledges that it is impossible to accurately predict natural events such as avalanches in every instance, and uses the data in this bulletin with this always foremost in mind. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and the Providers disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use the data.
Strong south east through west winds have created touchy soft slabs at exposed locations in the upper tree line and alpine elevation bands.