Avalanche Forecast
Sea To Sky
Don't let your guard down with the sunny weather and fresh snow. Take a cautious approach towards more aggressive terrain - especially steep, wind-affected terrain.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.
- Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded features
- Be alert to changing snow conditions, especially where the snow firms up or sounds hollow.
Avalanche Summary
On Sunday, a Size 1 storm slab was reported in the north of the region - on a steep, unsupported convex roll.
Otherwise, no new avalanches observed.
Snowpack Summary
Approximately 40-60 cm of snow from late last week now sits on top of a rain crust (or multiple crusts) that formed during the wet weather at the end of November. Strong (southerly) winds have blown snow around in exposed areas creating drifts and scoured areas.
For the most part, the riding in the region consists of 20-30cm of low density snow that is right-side up (the snow gets more dense as you go deeper into the snowpack). The main areas of concern are lee (down wind) north facing and cross-loaded features in the alpine and tree line elevation bands.
Snowpack depths are typically around 150 cm in sheltered tree line locations, although deeper (and shallower) spots certainly exist on account of the strong winds.
Weather Forecast
We're into a period of fine weather for the foreseeable future, with significant warming from Wednesday onwards.
Tuesday: Mainly sunny and becoming warm up high. Freezing levels rising to 1500 m. Light northerly winds.
Wednesday: Sunny. Light northerly winds. Freezing levels 3000m. Alpine high temperatures to +2 Celsius.
Thursday: Sunny and warm. Freezing levels around 3500 m. Light northwesterly winds. Alpine high temperatures to +5 Celsius.
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:
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- Sea To Sky URL:
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Wind slabs have been building over a crust layer in specific, mostly north facing locations. This layer may slide easily, particularly on steep convex terrain or where the wind has blown it into more cohesive slabs.