January 31, 2004

This Special Avalanche Warning Sponsored by The Provincial Emergency
Program.

South Coast Region

Weather: A band of precipitation will cross Vancouver Island and dissipate
on the South Coast.  10 cm of snow are possible in some areas overnight on
Saturday. Temperatures will be at, or slightly below seasonal norms.  
Winds will remain moderate from the west and then shift gradually to the
south, becoming lighter by Monday.

Snowpack: A variety of windslab layers are reported. Observers indicate
that the upper layers are showing signs of strengthening, but windslabs
are still being released in controlled skier tests. A buried layer of
facets sit on a crust 50-100cm below the surface at treeline, and is
suspected as the failure layer in natural avalanches seen on Friday. The
snowpack below is well consolidated.

Avalanche Activity: Many natural and human triggered avalanches were
observed on Friday. Avalanches were associated with windslabs on alpine N
and E slopes, some were large releases affecting large areas of snow and
running long distances. Avalanches were observed to initiate on windslabs
or surface layers and then step down to the facet-crust interface below.
Sledders are cautioned that larger triggers such as a snowmobile could
release a large avalanche stepping down to the facet-crust interface.

Forecast of Avalanche Danger Up To Monday Evening (February 2, 2004)
Alpine - CONSIDERABLE
Treeline - CONSIDERABLE
Below Treeline - MODERATE

Travel Advisory: The snowpack is forecast to slowly gain strength as the
weekend progresses, but this may be a mixed blessing. The snowpack is
still variable and trigger points for avalanches will exist on some slopes
and not on others. As the snow settles from the storm, adjacent slopes may
stabilise at different rates; there is no method or trick that you can use
to know which of these slopes is safe and which isn^Òt. A good way to
reduce your risk of triggering an avalanche is to keep to terrain that has
a slope angle of less than 30 degrees.