Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 17th, 2017 3:59PM

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

Avalanche Canada cgarritty, Avalanche Canada

We're heading into a period of improving stability. Stay on the lookout for storm slabs at higher elevations.

Summary

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

Saturday: Cloudy with scattered flurries and a trace to 5 cm of new snow. Winds light from the southwest. Freezing level to 1000 metres with alpine temperatures around 0. Sunday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Winds light to moderate from the southeast. Freezing level to 900 metres with alpine temperatures around -1. Monday: Wet flurries with 10-15 cm accumulations. Winds moderate from the southwest. Freezing level to 1000 metres with alpine temperatures around 0.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported, however observations of alpine elevations have been limited.

Snowpack Summary

About 20 cm of wet snow overlies a crust at treeline elevations and below. Below this crust, the 50-70 cm of snow we received last week is moist after being saturated with 140 mm of rain on Tuesday through Wednesday. So far, all has been bonding well to a knife hard crust buried February 3rd and previous instabilities at this interface are suspected to have largely subsided at this point. Exceptions to this assumption may exist in the alpine, where some of our recent precipitation fell as snow. Here, storm slabs will have taken longer to settle out and may still be unstable. To manage this uncertainty at higher elevations, dig down to test the bond of the more recent snow layers. Aside from lingering upper snowpack concerns in the alpine, the mid and lower snowpack are settled and bonded at all elevations with the average snowpack depth at treeline around 250-300 cm.

Problems

Storm Slabs

An icon showing Storm Slabs
Look for recently formed storm slabs as you approach alpine elevations. These slabs may overlie a hard crust and could remain reactive to human triggering over the short term.
Maintain awareness of the depth of new snow as you gain elevation.Use caution in lee areas in the alpine. Recent storm snow has formed slabs that may remain reactive.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Feb 18th, 2017 2:00PM