Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 20th, 2021 4:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Persistent Slabs.

Logan Bennett,

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Extreme winds have redistributed snow into immediate lee windslabs in the alpine. Be cautious entering large exposed slopes.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Calm, cool conditions will persist through Thursday and Friday as a ridge of high pressure builds across the Alberta rockies.

Snowpack Summary

Strong to extreme winds overnight redistributed 10cm of snow into immediate lee windslabs. Jan 11th interface down 20-35 cm producing mod to hard results. Dec 25th, 13th and 7th layers down 50-120 cm and generally produce hard or no results. A rain crust exists on surface below 1500 m in eastern areas.

Avalanche Summary

A few size 1-2 windslab avalanches were observed in yoho region today, these were concentrated in the Alpine.

Confidence

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs

Strong to Extreme winds redistributed 10cm of snow into immediate lee windslabs. Treat lee loaded areas with extra caution especially if entering large steep terrain features.

  • Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
  • Use caution in lee areas in the alpine and treeline. Recent storm snow has formed wind slabs.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Persistent Slabs

An icon showing Persistent Slabs

Several persistent weak layers are present in the top meter of the snowpack. Generally, they are not reactive to skier traffic but we still get occasional reports of avalanches on one of the layers, usually on steep convex rolls or in thin areas.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Treeline, Below Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely

Expected Size

1 - 1.5

Valid until: Jan 21st, 2021 4:00PM