Avalanche Forecast
South Coast
Avalanche danger will be governed by how the new snow is sticking to the old surface below - take the time to assess this bond as you travel through the elevation bands. Give cornices a wide berth when traveling on or below ridges.
Avalanche Problem 1: Storm Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be cautious as you transition into wind affected terrain.
- Extra caution needed around cornices with current conditions.
- Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.
Avalanche Summary
A few wet loose natural avalanches to size 1 were reported on sunny aspects over the long weekend.
On Friday a size 1.5 slab avalanche was reported on the south face of the First (aka Pump) Peak on Mt Seymour, which is a heavily traveled slope. See here for a great photo.
Snowpack Summary
At tree line and below, we're into a spring cycle with a good re-freeze overnight (supportive crust) followed by daytime warmings to +3 and wet surface snow. New snow amounts over the past several days (10 cm or less) have been absorbed into the spring snowpack cycle.
Alpine areas around Squamish likely received about 60-100 cm of storm snow a week ago, with wind early last week. In these areas the more recent snow is possibly sitting on a mixture of weak grains including a crust on solar aspects and potentially facets/surface hoar on polar aspects.
Below the storm snow the snowpack is generally well settled and strong.
Weather Forecast
Light precipitation amounts on Wednesday with heavier snow fall (or rain) on Thursday-Friday. Freezing levels will increase slowly & steadily.
WEDNESDAY: Cloudy with isolated wet flurries (5cm possible) / Moderate south west wind / Alpine temperature -4 / Freezing level 900m rising to 1200m in the afternoon
THURSDAY: Wet snow (10-20cm) or rain at lower elevations / Light to moderate south-west wind / Alpine temperature -2 / Freezing level 1700m
FRIDAY: Cloudy with wet flurries or rain at lower elevations (5-10 cm possible in the morning) / Moderate south west wind / Alpine temperature -1 / Freezing level 2000m.
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
- South Coast URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/south-coast.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.
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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.
The new snow will be falling on a wide variety of older surfaces. Check to see how the new now is bonding to the old snow below.