In the aftermath of the mid-November rainstorms, many highways and access roads in the eastern Fraser Valley are compromised by washouts. Access to the Canadian Cascades and Eastern slopes of the South Coast mountains will be challenging in the next months.

Along with washouts and mudslides, the snowpack was pretty much washed away below 1350m. Since then, very little snow has accumulated below tree-line. Above tree-line the snowpack is more normal around 120-150cm in the Inner South Coast, (somewhat less in the Cascades, about 1m of snow height)

Yesterday, (Dec 7th) with my partner Tobin, we attempted to reach tree-line in the Nahatlatch area, access roads were in bad shape and after hiking around 6kms in 10-15cm in light dry snow we only reached 1350m. The snow here was overlying on frozen ground. Light Westerly winds and -1 temps

This evening, a pilot reported an estimated 100-150cm of undisturbed smooth snow around 1800m, just above the area we reached yesterday. Quite a discrepancy in snowpack over 500m of elevation!

Today in the Cascade Mtns near Hope BC, Tobin reported being shut down by road washouts in 3 different approach roads; first in Wells-Hope Mtn FSR, next, in a valley near 11 Mile FSR, and finally the Jones Lk FSR, (the road accessing the North side of the Cheam Range), was blocked by mudslide!

So far the snowpack distribution is uncommon and may result in an unusual basel layer at lower elevations. Thankfully the coming days are forecast to bring more snow to the lower elevations and maybe get back to a normal snowpack.