Alpine: Low Thursday, Moderate Friday
Treeline: Low Thursday, Moderate Friday
Below treeline: Low through Friday
Travel Advisory : Light accumulations of snowfall during the past few days have been transported by south-east winds onto lee slopes. You can expect the avalanche danger to increase with exposure to the sun and rising freezing levels this afternoon, particularly on steep rocky south facing aspects. Cornices continued to grow during the storm cycle at the end of last week and remain fragile, give them a wide berth.
Avalanche Activity: There has been little in the way of avalanche activity observed since the passage of Saturday's storm. Some minor solar-induced surface instabilities were observed late in the day on Monday, with subsequent cooling leaving another melt-freeze crust on the surface. The new snow layers that fell during the past 24 hours have been reactive to ski testing in some isolated areas this morning, with size 1.0 results.
Snowpack: The storm snow from last Friday and Saturday has generally continued to settle and gain strength since it fell. Easy shears have been observed this morning in some isolated west aspects withing the new snow layers. On sheltered slopes at and below the treeline, several surface hoar layers and melt-freeze crusts are buried within the snowpack. Snowpack tests continue to produce moderate shears on these layers and they could become reactive with further loading.
Weather: A weak ridge of high pressure will bring a mix of sun and cloud today and tomorrow. Freezing levels are forecast to rise to 1,800 metres this afternoon, 1,400 metres tomorrow, and up to 1,800 metres on Friday, but will fall to the valley bottom at night. A weak system arriving onshore on Thursday night will bring increasing cloud cover through Friday but little if anything in the way of precipitation. The extended outlook is calling for a change to a more active and cooler weather pattern for next week.
Conditions may vary and can change rapidly. Check for the most current conditions before heading out into the backcountry. Daily updates for the areas adjacent to Whistler/Blackcomb are available at 604-938-7676, or surf to www.whistler-blackcomb.com/weather where there is also a link to the CAA public avalanche bulletin, or call 1-800-667-1105.
- Whistler Mountain Snow Safety
