Avalanche Forecast
Sea To Sky
Wind slabs and cornices are the main concerns right now: Give both a wide berth and limit your exposure to 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 slope has had a chance to stabilize.
- Be cautious as you transition into wind affected terrain.
- Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.
Avalanche Problem 2: Cornices
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Heavy snowfall and high winds a week ago formed fragile 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 the slopes below.
- Give cornices a wide berth when travelling on or below ridges.
Avalanche Summary
On Monday, cornice control work with explosives resulted in a size 2.5 avalanche which ran on the early January crust/facet layer.
On Sunday, ski cutting produced several size 1 to 1.5 soft slabs on immediate down wind (lee) features. Expect wind slabs to remain reactive to human triggers as winds continue to be moderate to strong with small amounts of new snow available for transport. See here for a good MIN post summarizing conditions near Whistler.
On Saturday we received reports of a skier triggered size 1.5 avalanche near Whistler on a north west aspect around 2100m.
Snowpack Summary
We've had small amounts of new snow over the past several days. Temperatures had been above zero at tree line for much of the weekend, but dropped to more seasonal values on Monday. Winds, however, have been consistently strong from the south (east), creating reactive wind slabs in exposed downwind (lee) terrain. At lower treeline and below, generally light amounts of snow or rain now overlie a melt-freeze crust which formed during Monday's warm storm from a week ago.
The new snow adds to the 170cm 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 a crust from mid-January which generally shows signs of bonding to the overlying snow; however, it has the potential to "wake-up" with a large trigger such as a cornice fall.
Below this, the snowpack is thought to be generally strong and well-settled.
Weather Forecast
Tuesday: Isolated flurries (5cm possible) / Light to moderate westerly winds / Freezing level 1000m.
Wednesday: 5-10cm of snow / Moderate gusting strong west winds / Freezing level at 1600m
Thursday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries (up to 5 cm possible) / Light to moderate north westerly winds / Freezing level at 1200m
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
- Sea To Sky URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/sea-to-sky.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.
Recent winds have created pockets of reactive soft slab below ridge crests and on immediate down wind (lee) features at higher elevations.