Avalanche forecast

Sea To Sky

Dec 6, 2017Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Don't let your guard down with the sunny weather and fresh snow. Take a cautious approach towards more aggressive terrain - especially steep, wind-affected terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Wind slabs have been building over a crust layer in specific, mostly north facing locations. This layer may slide easily, particularly on steep convex terrain or where the wind has blown it into more cohesive slabs.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Conditions will be more like spring than winter this week. Surface snow layers can become weak when hit by the sun. Minimize your exposure to terrain traps - even small sluffs can push you into dangerous terrain.

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

We're into a period of fine weather for the foreseeable future, with significant warming from Wednesday onwards. Wednesday: Sunny. Light northerly winds. Freezing levels 3000m. Alpine high temperatures to +2 Celsius.Thursday: Sunny and warm. Freezing levels around 3500 m. Light northwesterly winds. Alpine high temperatures to +5 Celsius.Friday: Sunny and warm. Freezing levels around 3400 m. Light northerly winds.

Avalanche Summary

On Sunday, a Size 1 storm slab was reported in the north of the region - on a steep, unsupported convex roll. Otherwise, no new avalanches observed.

Snowpack Summary

Approximately 40-60 cm of snow from late last week now sits on top of a rain crust (or multiple crusts) that formed during the wet weather at the end of November. The snow appears to be bonding well to the crust with no avalanche activity reported recently on this layer.Up high, the main concern has been winds (first from the south, and more recently from the north) that have blown snow around in exposed areas creating drifts and scoured areas. The take-home message is that wind slabs can be found on many aspects at higher elevations - including some southerly aspects, which is an unusual pattern. Other than steep south facing slopes, much of the riding in the region consists of 20-30cm of low density snow that is right-side up (the snow gets more dense as you go deeper into the snowpack).

Regions covered