Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 27th, 2019 4:16PM

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

cgarritty, Avalanche Canada

North Columbia.

New snow has resupplied avalanche problems in the region. Be mindful of avalanche danger increasing in sync with daytime warming.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Wednesday night: Mainly clear. Light east winds.Thursday: Mainly sunny. Light east winds. Alpine high temperatures around -1 with freezing levels to 1900 metres.Friday: Sunny. Light northwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around 0 with freezing levels to 2100 metres.Saturday: A mix of sun and cloud with cloud increasing over the day. Light southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around 0 with freezing levels to 2100 metres.Overnight freezing levels will increase steadily during this period, dropping briefly each night to between 1000 to 1500 metres.

Avalanche Summary

Reports from Tuesday showed skier traffic, ski cutting, and explosives control yielding mainly small (size 1-1.5) storm slab releases, with slab depths of 10-20 cm. North to northeast aspects were the focal point and wide fracture propagations in these results were attributed to a poor bond between the new snow and the previous surface of crust.Looking forward, lingering wind slabs may remain reactive to human triggering and may become touchier with daytime warming. Meanwhile, an ample supply of new snow is in place to reinvigorate loose wet avalanche problems as sunshine and warming take hold each day.

Snowpack Summary

10 to 20 cm of new snow from Tuesday's storm has buried a surface of melt-freeze crust in most areas above 1500 metres. Below this elevation the new snow buried variably moist or crusty surfaces.Precipitation as rain continued to saturate the snowpack that is increasingly isothermal (slushy and cohesionless) and disappearing rapidly below about 1100 metres.The remainder of the snowpack is generally consolidated and strong. Exceptions may exist on north aspects above 2000 m, where a gradually strengthening layer of faceted grains buried 50 to 70 cm deep may still be preserved below an overlying slab of old and hard wind-affected snow.

Problems

Loose Wet

New snow has resupplied our loose wet avalanche problem. Rising temperatures and sunshine will destabilize surface snow on Thursday, especially on steep, sunny slopes. Larger avalanches become possible during peak warming.

This problem may affect shaded aspects where air temperatures exceed 0 degrees.Start and finish early to reduce your exposure to avalanche terrain during the heat of the day.Avoid exposure to terrain traps, where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.

Aspects: East, South East, South, South West, West.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2

Wind Slabs

New snow and south winds formed new wind slabs at higher elevations during Tuesday's storm. This problem increases with elevation and is variable throughout the region with areas of locally enhanced new snow accumulation.

Be careful around wind loaded pockets near ridge crests and roll-overs.Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.

Aspects: North, North East, East, North West.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 1.5

Valid until: Mar 28th, 2019 2:00PM