Avalanche Forecast
Sea To Sky
Wind slabs exist on a wide range of aspects and may be hidden by the most recent snow.
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.
- Approach steep lee and cross-loaded slopes with caution.
Avalanche Problem 2: Cornices
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Large, looming cornices have formed along ridgelines. They need to be given an extra wide berth from above and below. A large cornice collapse in the wrong location may have the ability to trigger a large avalanche on the slope below.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Falling cornices may trigger large avalanches on the slopes below.
- Stiff cornices can easily pull back into flat terrain at ridgetop if they fail.
Avalanche Summary
The new snow produced a few small isolated size 1 avalanches on Wednesday. No new avalanches were reported on Tuesday.
Some larger wind slabs were reactive to skier triggers on the weekend, including a size 2 avalanche on a north-facing slope near Whistler on Saturday (see MIN report here).
Several large cornices have collapsed over the past week. One resulted in a fatal accident in the Callaghan area on Saturday. A snowmobiler was parked 7-10 m back from the edge of a corniced ridge when a large chuck broke off and took the rider down the slope. See here for a full report. A similar incident occurred nearby the same day, but the person only suffered minor injuries. A collapsing cornice also triggered a large slab (size 3) on a north-facing slope west of Pemberton on the weekend. Fragile cornices continue to be a concern in the region.
Snowpack Summary
10-20 cm of new snow sits above a variety of old surfaces, including scoured crusty surfaces on south-facing alpine slopes, old wind slabs on a range of aspects at high elevations, and a melt-freeze crust up to about 1900 m.
On average, 180 cm of settled snow now sits on the mid-January crust 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
THURSDAY: Increasing cloud with light flurries in the evening, light to moderate west wind, alpine high temperatures around -10 C.
FRIDAY: Trace to 5 cm of new snow by the morning then clearing throughout the day, light northwest wind, freezing level climbing to 1000 m with alpine high temperatures around -6 C.
SATURDAY: Moderate snowfall with 10-20 cm throughout the day, strong southwest wind, freezing level up to 900 m with alpine high temperatures around -6 C.
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Light amounts of new snow and strong wind has formed new wind slabs and buried older wind slabs on a range of aspects.