Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 30th, 2014–Jan 31st, 2014

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Little Yoho.

The new snow has improved ski quality but also just barely buried many rocks. Choose conservative terrain to manage the deep basal problem inherent in this years thin, variable snowpack.

Weather Forecast

The arctic air mass is upon us once again. We can expect cold temperatures -15/-25, light north winds and sunny skies throughout the forecast period.

Snowpack Summary

Last nights 5-15cm of snow has buried the Jan 30th surface hoar / sun crust layer. This new snow came in with very little wind, so any new storm slabs are expected to be thin and soft and low consequence, however this will become a weak layer to watch in the future. The basal facets remain weak, but the overall snowpack is gaining strength.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed in the past several days.

Confidence

The weather pattern is stable

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.