Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Mar 12th, 2020 8:03AM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Storm Slabs and Persistent Slabs.
percy woods,
Parks Canada
Be conservative in your terrain selection and give the snowpack time to adjust to the recent storm snow load.
Summary
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with sunny periods, isolated flurries with a trace of precipitation. Alpine temperature a high -11 °C with W ridge wind at 10-25km/h and an 800m freezing level. Friday calls for mainly cloudy sky with isolated flurries, a trace of snow ridge wind E at 30km/h and a high of -18C, brrrrrr!
Snowpack Summary
25-30cm of snow and mod/strong SW winds in the last 48hrs has created a reactive storm slab. The new snow sits on a thin suncrust on solar aspects and small surface hoar on N'ly aspects. Below this slab, the Feb 22nd persistent weak layer is down 80-120cm, and consists of 3-7mm surface hoar on all aspects up to 2450m, and a crust on solar aspects.
Avalanche Summary
Yesterday's avalanche cycle produced natural avalanches to size 3 and controlled avalanches to size 3.5 in the highway corridor. The slides from avalanche control were mainly confined to the storm snow with Camp West path possibly digging deeper.
Confidence
Problems
Storm Slabs
25-30cm of recent storm snow with mod/strong winds has created a widespread storm slab. Lee and cross-loaded features at upper elevations will shed this new layer easily. Unsupported slopes/terrain traps below tree-line should be avoided.
- The new snow will require several days to settle and stabilize.
- If triggered the storm slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Persistent Slabs
The February 22 Surface Hoar/ sun crust layer is down 90-130cm. It's possibly for skier-triggering in shallower snowpack areas, but otherwise this layer will take a bigger trigger to be activated.
- Avoid steep convexities or areas with a thin or variable snowpack
- Be aware of the potential for wide propagations.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Mar 13th, 2020 8:00AM
