Avalanche Forecast
South Coast
Low danger doesn't mean you get to turn off your brain. Normal cautions will help you to manage lingering wind slabs, looming cornices, and the daily cycle of loose wet avalanche conditions.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Expect loose wet avalanche conditions to develop over the day on south aspects.
- Be careful around wind loaded pockets near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.
Avalanche Summary
No recent notable avalanches have been reported.
Snowpack Summary
A mid-week storm brought up to 15 cm of new snow to the alpine while rain saturated the upper snowpack at treeline and below. Surface conditions on solar aspects and below about 1500 metres have been affected by daily melt-freeze cycles. In the limited alpine terrain where the recent precipitation fell as snow, lingering wind slabs may remain reactive to human triggering over the near term.
Below any recent snow accumulations, the overall snowpack is well settled and strong. New cornices formed and old ones grew more overhanging with the snowfall at the end of last week. Cornices become more unstable during the day as the temperature rises.
Weather Forecast
Saturday: A mix of sun and cloud. Light variable winds. Freezing level to 1500 metres with alpine high temperatures around -1.
Sunday: Cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light southwest winds. Freezing level to 1000 metres with alpine high temperatures around -2.
Monday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light west winds. Freezing level to 1200 metres with alpine high temperatures around -1.
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?
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Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- South Coast URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/south-coast.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.
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Lingering wind slabs on high north slopes still need to be assessed and managed. Gather info about the depth and reactivity of new snow as you ascend. South aspects become a concern as warming destabilizes surface snow.