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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Nov 28th, 2022–Nov 29th, 2022

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

Regions

Purcells, Dogtooth, East Purcell, Moyie, St. Mary.

Because of the thin, soft, early season snowpack the best riding will also be where avalanches are most likely. My suggestion is to keep slope angles moderate and sheltered from the wind.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Limited reporting from the field, but Sunday's avalanche were small (mostly size 1, one size 2) and included loose dry (sluffs) and windslabs,

Snowpack Summary

Upper Snowpack: This weekend's storm generally added 10 to 20 cm to the snowpack with the deep snow holes touching 30 cm.

Lower Snowpack: It's a thin cold early season story of mostly soft facets (in representative places that are out of the wind near treeline)

Noteworthy Weakness: A surface hoar/sun crust combination from mid-November releasing easily and propagating in snowpack tests.

In the alpine, snowpack depths range from 50-150 cm. At treeline there is around 50-100 cm. Below treeline is thin and scratchy. At all elevations there are many early season hazards like rocks and stumps.

Weather Summary

Monday Night

Dry, -20C style cold, light wind

Tuesday

Dry, sunny in the morning but increasing cloudiness late in the day, -15 to -20 C, light wind but increasing late in the day from the southwest

Wednesday

Weak disturbance means overcast, 5 to 15 cm snow, light to mod southwest wind, warming temps to around -10 C.

Thursday

Mixed day with nil to 5 cm of snow, temps around -10 C, light southwest wind.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Dial back your terrain choices if you are seeing more than 30 cm of new snow.
  • Start on smaller terrain features and gather information before committing to bigger terrain.
  • Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.

Problems

Storm Slabs

Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-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.