Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 28th, 2014 4:00PM
The alpine rating is Deep Persistent Slabs.
, the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems includeWinds and cold temperatures have created many weak areas in the alpine and treeline elevations this year. This gives us low confidence in the snowpack in bigger terrain at these elevations. Good skiing can still be found on sheltered non solar slopes
Summary
Weather Forecast
A weak front is forecast to bring up to 5 cm of snow with light winds Wednesday overnight with valley temperatures in the -5 to -10 range. On Thurs and Fri we will return to high pressure with sunny skies and lows in the -15 to -20 range. Likely, we will get temperature inversions (temperatures colder in the valleys than in the alpine).
Snowpack Summary
The Jan 25th surface hoar layer is buried under 5 cm of snow in the Bow Summit area, but remains on the surface in most of the forecast region. This will become a weak layer to watch in the future. Strong solar radiation has formed a suncrust on S & W facing slopes. The basal facets remain weak, but the overall snowpack is gaining strength.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches observed in the past several days.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
The basal facets are lying dormant for now. However, the possibility of triggering from a weak spot (thin, shallow, rocky area) remains real.
Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 29th, 2014 4:00PM