Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 24th, 2017 3:28PM

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

Avalanche Canada triley, Avalanche Canada

Northerly outflow winds have started to develop new wind slabs on south through west aspects in the alpine.

Summary

Confidence

-

Weather Forecast

Tonight: Mostly clear with moderate northeast winds and -10 in the alpine. Saturday: Overcast with light snow (3-5cm), moderate northwest winds, and alpine temperatures -10. Sunday: Mostly clear with some convective flurries, light northeast winds, and alpine temperatures near -15. Monday: Clear with light easterly winds, and alpine temperatures near -15.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanche activity reported. Some loose snow sluffing from steep terrain has been reported. Changing wind directions may develop new wind slabs in the alpine.

Snowpack Summary

Overcast skies and a couple of cm of new snow has not changed the snowpack structure since the weekend. A new layer of surface hoar may have been buried early Monday morning. Clear cold weather and shifting winds have created a variety of surface conditions including isolated wind slabs, pockets of soft snow (15-25 cm deep), sun crusts, and surface hoar. A supportive rain crust exists below 1000 m. A layer of surface hoar that was buried on February 10th can be found buried 30-60 cm deep at treeline elevations and has been reactive in some recent snowpack tests. Below this layer, the snowpack is generally settled and strong. The exception is shallow snowpack areas around Bear Pass and Ningunsaw where basal facets remain an ongoing concern.

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs
Wind slabs likely exist on a variety of aspects, including fresh wind slabs formed by outflow winds and lingering wind slabs from last week's storm.
Use caution above cliffs where small avalanches may have severe consequences.Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.Be alert to conditions that change with elevation.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Feb 25th, 2017 2:00PM