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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 19th, 2019–Feb 20th, 2019

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

Regions

Jasper.

Manage your exposure and keep wary to evidence of localized instability such as cracking, whumphing and, recent avalanche activity.

Weather Forecast

Wednesday will be mix of sun and clouds with isolated flurries, alpine temperature high -11 C, and West 10-20 km/h winds. Thursday will be sun with clouds, no snow, alpine temperature low -21 C and high -13 C, West 10 km/h winds. A detailed mountain weather forecast is available from Avalanche Canada.

Snowpack Summary

The upper snowpack is faceted creating a weak slab over a instability of surface hoar/facets on a crust down 40cm. The thicker snowpack spots have a strong mid-pack bridging the deep persistent basal weakness of depth hoar. Thinner snow-pack zones are much less consolidated and can act as a slab triggering the basal depth hoar.

Avalanche Summary

Tuesday's patrol was poor visibility but several loose dry avalanches up to size 1 were noted in steep rocky terrain. We could not see into the alpine nor beyond the trees along the roadside. Saturday's field team into Whistler Creek reported no new avalanches.

Confidence

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.

Loose Dry

Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.