Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin

Vancouver Island Avalanche Bulletin

Date Issued: Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009

Valid Until: Thursday Feb 19, 2009

Bulletin Area: This bulletin covers the mountainous region of Vancouver Island from the Mt. Cain Ski Area in the North to the Beaufort range to the South including the mountains of Strathcona Provincial Park.

DANGER RATINGS

Confidence:

Good:No precip. in the foreseeable future.

Primary Concerns:

Isolated wind slabs.

Weather:

Sunny on Tuesday, Some clouds on Wednesday and back to sun on Thursday. Freezing levels creeping up to 2000m on Thursday

Snowpack:

Our well settled upper snowpack might still hide some lurking isolated windslabs in lee terrain but for the most part the lack of snow and low freezing levels are helping to strengthen our snow pack. Shallow areas are still a concern high in the alpine where shallow weak snow could still fail under a heavy load or in the right terrain feature such as large convex rolls or large planer features.

Travel advisory:

Watch out for sunny aspects in the heat of the day as the warm sunny days and rising freezing levels will weaken the snow on the solar aspects. As always be on the look out for wind slab when jumping into ski runs on in areas that are lee to the wind

Avalanche Activity:

No new avalanches have been observed.

Outlook:

No snow, where is the snow?

Are you traveling in the island back country?

Send our forecasters your observations. We are particularly interested in hearing if you have observed avalanche activity or If you or a member of your party has been involved in an avalanche. Email your observations to the Island Avalanche Bulletin forecasters at info@islandalpineguides.com

Important Notice: This is a regional forecast and significant variation may exist within the forecast area. The information and danger ratings are intended as a trip planning aid for recreational, backcountry users of avalanche terrain; they are not meant to be used as the sole factor in determining the avalanche danger presented by a specific slope. Always include local weather, snowpack and avalanche observations in your decision to travel in avalanche terrain. Observations and experience may lead to different conclusions from what is reported or recommended. See disclaimer for further details. The technical data used to produce these bulletins is obtained from a variety of sources, including local ski areas and remote weather resources.