Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 8th, 2019 8:00AM

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

mark herbison, Parks Canada

Glacier.

Newly formed wind slab and fast sluffing in steep terrain should be a concern today. The 10cm of new snow has improved ski quality slightly.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries throughout the day with accumulations of 1-2cm of snow. The alpine high will reach -11, winds will be 15-30kph and the freezing level will only reach 800m today, melting the snow banks in the streets of Revelstoke. Clearing skies and light winds for the weekend with the possible return of snow early next week.

Snowpack Summary

10cm of new snow covers surface facets, wind slabs, and sun crusts . Sun crusts will be found on steeper solar terrain making for difficult travel. Moderate to strong winds have deposited thin wind slabs on exposed terrain features at ridge-top and exposed treeline areas. The mid and lower snowpack is well settled and strong.

Avalanche Summary

Several loose dry avalanches to sz 2 were observed from Macdonald Gully 5, Cheops South, and the Generals slide paths on Wednesday. No new avalanche observations from yesterday. Expect to find pockets of newly formed wind slab at tree line and above.

Confidence

Problems

Loose Dry

The 10cm of new snow is not likely to bond very well to crusts on solar aspects and facets on polar aspects and should be a concern if considering riding steep faces, skiing above cliffs or traveling in confined chutes.

Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain, particularly where the debris flows into terrain traps.Sluffs will be easy to trigger in steep terrain that is sheltered from the wind

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 1.5

Wind Slabs

New snow and moderate Southerly winds have formed wind slabs along lee and cross loaded features. The slabs may be overlying weak faceted snow so watch for shooting cracks, settlements and hollow sounds from the snowpack.

Watch for whumpfing, hollow sounds, and shooting cracks.Use caution in lee areas. Recent wind loading has created wind slabs.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, West, North West.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Mar 9th, 2019 8:00AM