Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 24th, 2013 9:05AM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is moderate. Known problems include Storm Slabs and Deep Persistent Slabs.

pgoddard, Avalanche Canada

Northwest Inland.

Summary

Confidence

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain for the entire period

Weather Forecast

Friday: Strong to extreme SW winds. Alpine temperature near -5. 5-15 cm snow.Saturday: Light W winds. Alpine temperature near -7. Very light snow.Sunday: Moderate SW winds. Alpine temperature near -9. 5 cm snow.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

New snow is landing on a medley of snow surfaces including hard and soft wind slabs, scoured slopes, blue ice and thin melt-freeze crusts. Winds are likely to shift snow into slabs in the lee of terrain breaks such as ridges and ribs. Surface hoar layers buried in the upper snowpack are patchy in their distribution. Recent snowpack tests recently gave generally hard to no results near Smithers. An otherwise strong mid-pack overlies a weak base layer of facets/depth hoar. The snowpack depth is around 100 cm at treeline.

Problems

Storm Slabs

New storm slabs and wind slabs are likely to develop during the next few days.

Avoid freshly wind loaded features.>Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1 - 4

Deep Persistent Slabs

A deeply buried weak layer near the base of the snowpack could be triggered by large loads such as a cornice collapse or from a thin-spot trigger point.

Avoid convexities or areas with a thin or variable snowpack.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 6

Valid until: Jan 25th, 2013 2:00PM