As of Tuesday, May 7
An unseasonably cool and unstable Northwesterly flow has provided us with 30cm of new snow since last Friday. Winds were predominantly from South-Southwesterly direction. Quite pleasant winter-like conditions can be found on some lee slopes where the underlying crust was fairly smooth and there are now sufficient accumulations of new snow over it.
Brief sunny breaks during this period have aided in the settlement of the new snow layers on some slopes. However, you can expect to find some lee slopes where the storm snow layers can be found to remain reactive to the weight of a skier or boarder.
The biggest concern right now is not so much the 20-30cm deep soft slabs, but rather the potential for sluffing with exposure to the sun. As the surface layers of snow begin to moisten and sluffing begins to occur on the underlying melt-freeze crust, a fairly large volume of snow could be entrained in some areas.
The backcountry avalanche danger is currently rated as Moderate, and will increase with exposure to the sun.
Conditions may vary and can change rapidly. Daily updates for these areas are available at 604-938-7676, or at www.whistler-blackcomb.com/weather where there is also a link to the CAA public avalanche bulletin.
The brief respite to the winter weather conditions mid-week is forecasted to give way to some unstable weather on Thursday and perhaps into Friday. The weekend is still a bit of a long-shot, but right now the chances are looking not bad for a few days of dry sunny and mild weather.
