Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 28th, 2021 5:45PM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Loose Dry.
Conrad Janzen,
Sluffing in steep terrain is the main concern for skiers and climbers at the moment. Areas with more new snow or any wind inputs could see a locally higher hazard as a result. Use good group management while skiing or climbing to minimize your risk.
Summary
Weather Forecast
Light flurries Thursday night stopping by mid day on Friday with only a couple cm's of accumulation. A slight clearing is forecast for Friday afternoon. Winds remain in the light range with treeline temperatures in the -7 to -10'C range.
Snowpack Summary
5-15+ cm new snow with the most in the southern areas. The new snow sits over 10-20 cm of facets at tree-line and below and over previous wind effect in the alpine. The mid-pack is generally well settled with the various persistent weak layers visible in the snowpack but unreactive to stability tests. The Nov crust/facets are near the ground.
Avalanche Summary
Dry loose sluffing up to size 1.5 was observed on Thursday in steep terrain in Kootenay, and one cornice collapse size 1.5-2 was remotely triggered by a skier but did not build a lot of mass even though it ran a long distance. Some sluffing in steep rocky gullies was also observed in the Yoho area.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
Loose Dry
5 to 15+cm of new snow is sitting on a facetted interface and has the potential to sluff easily out of steep terrain. This problem is most pronounced in the southern areas that received more snow in the last 24 hrs.
- On steep slopes, pull over periodically or cut into a new line to manage sluffing.
- Be careful of loose dry power sluffing in steep terrain.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 29th, 2021 4:00PM
