Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 21st, 2019 8:10AM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Wind Slabs.
ross campbell,
Parks Canada
This wind slab problem is on the surface and is easy to identify. Shooting cracks, or firmer snow are slab indicators. Dig down and investigate the upper snowpack before committing to your line.
Summary
Weather Forecast
Sunny with cloudy periods, no precipitation, light winds from the NW and the freezing level will rise no further than valley bottom. Snow beginning tonight(flurries), 7cm on Tuesday and 13cm on Wednesday. This brief system does not last long, or pack much punch as another ridge of high pressure follows closely behind.
Snowpack Summary
25cm of storm snow overlies a wide variety of surfaces depending on aspect, elevation, and drainage; including but not limited to surface hoar in sheltered locations to unreactive wind slabs in the alpine. The new snow was accompanied by extreme winds on Saturday, forming slabs in specific areas throughout the park.
Avalanche Summary
A size 1 skier accidental and a size 2 skier controlled occurred yesterday. The size 1 was on a east aspect, 40 deg slope at 2450m in Hospital Bowl. The slab was 15-25cm deep, 30m wide and ran for 100m; the size 2 was in the lookout couloirs. Another similar avalanche occurred on Saturday in the Ravens; size 1.5 at 2100m on a SW asp, 35 deg slope.
Confidence
Due to the quality of field observations
Problems
Wind Slabs
Over the weekend we received 20cm of new snow accompanied by extreme winds forming wind slabs in specific locations throughout the park. This overlies the Jan 17th SH layer in sheltered areas and old unreactive wind slabs in exposed terrain.
Dig down to find and test weak layers before committing to a line.Use caution in lee areas. Recent wind loading have created wind slabs.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 22nd, 2019 8:00AM
