Avalanche forecast

Sea To Sky

Apr 5 – 6, 2012Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–5
    Generally lurking below ridgecrests, behind terrain features, and in gullies. Sun-exposure is expected to increase sensitivity to triggers, and deeper weaknesses with step-down potential can result in very large avalanches.

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3
    Large and weak cornices could easily start popping off with sun-exposure. Not only are they a hazard in themselves, but can also act as a heavy trigger for very large avalanches on the slope below.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–6
    The potential for remote triggering, step down avalanches, and wide propagations, makes the current snowpack structure particularly tricky to manage.

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Friday: Unsettled conditions with scattered flurries and sunny breaks. Freezing levels around 1000m and light winds. Saturday: A ridge of high pressure is expected to keep things mainly sunny and dry. Freezing levels are expected to hover around 1200m, and winds should remain light. Sunday: Some increasing clouds with light precipitation later in the day.

Avalanche Summary

Reports from Wednesday include natural activity up to Size 3 in response to direct sun-exposure. One natural Size 3, 160cm thick slab avalanche on a steep NE facing alpine glacier was suspected to have failed on the late-March interface. A settlement was felt 1 Km away during this avalanche, which suggests a high propensity to propagate fractures. More evidence of the widespread natural avalanche cycle during the storms earlier in the week was also observed, with slabs up to Size 3.5 running full path.

Snowpack Summary

Over 60cm of new snow in the past couple of days was redistributed by strong southwesterly winds into thick wind slabs. A predominately crusty weak interface from late March, now down 50-150cm, remains a potential failure layer for large slab avalanches, especially with heavy triggers such as cornice falls and step-down avalanches. Not only will daytime warming and sun-exposure cause surface snow to lose cohesion and cornices to weaken, they will also increase settlement rates and decrease slab stability.

Regions covered