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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Dec 17th, 2022–Dec 18th, 2022

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

South Okanagan, Shuswap, North Okanagan.

Keep backcountry travel low-risk and close to the car. Temperatures are forecasted to really start dropping and along with some of the shortest daylight hours of the year, any sort of incident (even broken equipment) could quickly become an epic.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

A handful of size 1 avalanches were reported in the Sun Peaks area Monday-Wednesday this week, these storm and wind slab avalanches were about 30 cm deep, one is covered in this MIN report from Monday.

Please submit a Mountain Information Network report if you are heading to the backcountry!

Snowpack Summary

20-30 cm of available snow has been redistributed by variable winds into fresh wind slabs on all aspects. This snow covers a crust on solar slopes and a layer of weak surface hoar in shaded terrain.

Buried 50-70 cm deep, a layer of surface hoar, crust, and faceted crystals. Observations are limited in this region but this layer has produced numerous large avalanches in the neighboring regions.

Snowpack depths at upper elevations are around 80-100 cm.

Weather Summary

Saturday night

Broken skies with isolated flurries, trace accumulation. Light southwesterly ridgetop winds gusting 35 km/hr. Overnight temperatures drop to -16 C.

Sunday

Mix of sun and cloud. Variable light ridgetop winds. Daytime high temperature -18 C.

Monday

Sunny skies. Light ridgetop winds gusting 35 km/hr. Daytime high temperature -21 C.

Tuesday

Sunny with cloudy periods. Southwesterly ridgetop wind 20 km/hr. daytime high temperatures -19 C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid steep, rocky, and wind effected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
  • Approach lee and cross-loaded slopes with caution.
  • Wind slabs may be poorly bonded to the underlying crust.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.