Avalanche Forecast
Avalanche Forecasts are for use by experienced backcountry travelers in uncontrolled sidecountry and backcountry terrain. These forecasts and conditions do not apply to open, in-bounds terrain at ski resorts, which is subject to avalanche control by local resort ski patrol.
Avalanche Rating
Considerable (3)
Don't let the break in the storm lure you into consequential terrain.
Wind slabs exist, with the potential to propagate far and wide due to buried crusts.
More Detail
To get the complete forecast with additional graphics and details, please view the Avalanche Canada Zone forecast provided by Avalanche Canada.
Snowpack Discussion
Recent storm snow accompanied by strong to extreme southerly winds has likely built reactive cornices and deep and reactive slabs on lee slopes. The storm snow may be poorly bonded to an underlying crust, and could result in very large avalanches like the one described in the avalanche summary.
Another buried crust with facets from early December is buried 90 to 160 cm deep at treeline. A layer of surface hoar may also be present in sheltered areas at this same depth.
Avalanche Activity
Thursday, natural storm slab activity continued, with size 2 avalanches reported at treeline, as well as one size 1 remotely triggered by riders from ridgetop above the S2S Gondola.
Monday, a very large (size 3) avalanche was triggered by skiers west of Pemberton. It failed on a rain crust buried 50 to 150 cm deep on a wind-loaded north-facing alpine slope. Several explosive, natural, and human-triggered avalanches were also reported across the region, up to size 2.5.