Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 5th, 2017 4:19PM

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

Avalanche Canada cgarritty, Avalanche Canada

Watch for instabilities in new snow on Friday and don't let a small slide get the best of you.

Summary

Confidence

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Friday

Weather Forecast

Thursday night: Scattered flurries bringing approximately 4cm of new snow.Friday: Flurries delivering around 7cm of new snow. Winds moderate from the south. Freezing level rising to 400 metres with alpine temperatures to -4.Saturday: Cloudy with sunny periods and no new snow. Winds light to moderate from the east. Freezing level rising to 1200 metres with alpine temperatures of +1.Sunday: Mostly cloudy with isolated wet flurries and up to 5cm of new snow. Winds light gusting to strong from the southeast. Freezing level rising to 1500 metres with alpine temperatures of +3.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

Cold temperatures and strong northerly winds over the past few days have left our snow surface a variable mix of faceted snow, wind crust, and wind slab. Approximately 95 cm of well-settled storm snow lies below this surface, the product of last week's series of storms. Earlier this week, the previously mentioned strong northerly winds that followed the storms redistributed loose storm snow into wind slabs behind exposed terrain features, mainly on south to west aspects. These wind slabs have gained considerable strength in recent days and remain a concern mainly in steep, unsupported terrain. Aside from possible wind slab instabilities in the upper snowpack, the mid and lower snowpack are considered to be well settled and stable.

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs
Thin fresh wind slabs will form with forecast snowfall on Friday. Don't allow a small slide push you into or over a terrain trap.
Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Jan 6th, 2017 2:00PM