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
High (4)
Extreme winds and new snow are expected to build reactive storm slabs.Avoid avalanche terrain and overhead hazard during periods of rapid loading from new snow and wind.
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
Up to 70 cm of storm snow has fallen since Saturday in some alpine areas. Much of this snow fell as rain at lower elevations.
A further 20 to 50 cm accompanied by strong to extreme southerly winds is expected Wednesday night through Thursday. This will likely build touchy cornices and form deep and reactive slabs on lee northerly slopes, and scour windward southerly slopes.Additionally, 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
Tuesday several explosive-triggered avalanches sizes 1.5 to 2 occurred near Whistler.
On 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.
Widespread avalanche activity is expected to continue, throughout this storm cycle.