Avalanche Forecast
Northwest Coastal
Snow, wind and warming are creating a good recipe for avalanches in the south-west of the region. Expect better conditions further north and east.
Avalanche Problem 1: Storm Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Choose moderate angled and supported terrain with low consequence.
- The more snow, wind or warming, the more cautiously to tread.
Avalanche Summary
Few avalanches have been reported over the past few days, but avalanche activity is expected to increase as storm snow comes in with warming and strong winds.
Snowpack Summary
The snowpack is variable across the region. Wind slabs can be found on a variety of slopes. New snow is expected to create touchy storm slabs in the south and west, but amounts should peter out as you travel north and east.
A surface hoar/facet interface that was buried on New Years Eve is down about 30-40 cm. Incoming storm snow might bring the load above this layer to its tipping point. A hard crust from mid-December sits deeper in the snowpack.
Beneath the mid-December crust the snowpack is reported to be generally strong with the possible exception of areas around Stewart and northern parts of the region where the late-October crust can be found near the base of the snowpack. Weak sugary faceted snow may exist around this deeply buried crust and could be triggered from shallow snowpack areas.
Weather Forecast
MONDAY: Strong south-west winds. 10-20 cm snow (locally more in the south-west). Alpine temperature near -1.
TUESDAY: Light winds. 5 cm snow. Alpine temperature near -2.
WEDNESDAY: Light winds. 5-10 cm snow. Alpine temperature near -7.
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.
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Set up an RSS feed for your email:
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- Northwest Coastal URL:
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Snow, wind and warming are creating a good recipe for touchy storm slabs. Snow amounts are expected to vary widely. Storm slabs could fail on persistent weak layers in some locations, creating a surprisingly large avalanche.