Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 8th, 2020 2:00PM

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

Avalanche Canada MBender, Avalanche Canada

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A stable weather pattern is forecast through to the end of the week. Expect sunny skies and cold temperatures with light wind. The wind is expected to increase on Friday.

Summary

Confidence

High - Confidence is due to a stable weather pattern; little change is expected for several days.

Weather Forecast

Wednesday Night: Cloudy with clear periods. Temperature around -20°C. Light northeast wind.

Thursday: Mix of sun and cloud. Temperature around -27°C. Light northwest wind.

Friday: Mainly sunny. Temperature around -30°C. Light to moderate northeast wind.

Saturday: Mainly sunny. Temperature around -30°C. Moderate northeast wind.

Avalanche Summary

There have been no reports of avalanche activity in the past few days.

Snowpack Summary

Around 25 cm of soft snow overlies a relatively well-consolidated mid and lower snowpack with no obvious weak layers. In some locations you may find a 2 cm thick crust below the recent fresh snow. In exposed locations, the fresh snow has been blown into variable-thickness wind slabs, which may pose local hazards, but are not expected to propagate widely in most locations. Snow depths at White Pass average around 150 cm; deeper locations (higher terrain west of the highway) have as much as 200 cm. It's reasonable to expect a thin snowpack with sugary facets in the Wheaton Valley, although we don't yet have any observations to confirm this.

Terrain and Travel

  • Watch for areas of hard wind slab on alpine features.

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs

Thin wind slab avalanches might be triggered behind exposed features such as ridgelines.

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

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Jan 9th, 2020 5:00PM