Boletín de aludes

South Rockies

Feb 15, 2017Avalanche Canada
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Archivado · caducó 10 years ago

Peligro de aludes

Wed
Thu
Alta montaña
3 · Notable
Límite del bosque
2 · Moderado
Bajo el límite
2 · Moderado
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Lo esencial

Wednesday's danger ratings are based on overcast skies. If the sun makes an appearance, consider the avalanche danger to be higher than posted.

Problemas de aludes

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alta montaña
    • Límite del bosque
    • Bajo el límite del bosque
    Probabilidad
    Possible
    Tamaño
    2–3
    Most of our upper snowpack is essentially a storm slab. Its bond to the underlying snow is improving, but continued warming may increase the likelihood of an avalanche. Watch for increased reactivity in high elevation wind-affected terrain.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alta montaña
    • Límite del bosque
    • Bajo el límite del bosque
    Probabilidad
    Possible
    Tamaño
    1–2
    Warm temperatures will promote loose wet avalanches on Wednesday, especially in steep terrain. Use extra caution if the sun makes an appearance.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alta montaña
    • Límite del bosque
    • Bajo el límite del bosque
    Probabilidad
    Possible
    Tamaño
    2–4
    A weak layer at the bottom of the snowpack is creating the potential for full depth avalanche releases. This weakness has been stressed by recent snowfall and warming, and is more likely to fail in areas where there has been less rider compaction.

Confidence

Moderate - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Wednesday

Weather Forecast

Wednesday: Clear skies in the morning with increased cloud throughout the day / Strong southwest winds / Freezing level at 2500mThursday: 5-10cm of new snow / Strong southwest winds / Freezing level at 2100mFriday: Clearing skies / Light southwest winds / Freezing level at about 1800m

Avalanche Summary

Recent observations have been limited; however, a size 2 solar-triggered slab avalanche was observed at 2000m in the Elkford area on Tuesday. It was thought to be about a day old. For Wednesday, warm temperatures can be expected to promote instability within the snowpack. As the warm temperatures persist, and especially if we don't experience refreezing overnight, the potential for deep persistent slab releases will rise steadily each day. Any avalanches releasing on a basal weakness will likely be large and very destructive.

Snowpack Summary

Roughly 10 cm of new snow received late last week has been redistributed into wind slabs by strong southerly winds at upper elevations. Where it hasn't blown away, this new snow now lies above the 15-30 cm of dense snow that fell over the region on Thursday, which was mixed with periods of rain at lower elevations. Together, these more recent accumulations overlie the 90cm of low density storm snow that we received last weekend. Strong shifting winds redistributed this previous storm snow in exposed terrain, forming wind slabs over a variable old surface which includes wind affected surfaces, facets, and/or a rain crust below around 1500 m. The bond at the interface between this older storm snow and the previous surface is suspected to be improving slowly.In deeper areas, the snowpack appears to be well settled with only isolated concerns about the mid-December facet layer which was buried 50-100 cm deep prior to the weekend storm. In shallow snowpack areas and at lower elevations, the mid to lower snowpack is weak, faceted, and has no structure. In these areas the snowpack's weakness may reach a tipping point as warm temperatures persist over the coming days.

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