Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 17th, 2024 2:00PM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Wind Slabs and Deep Persistent Slabs.
mkoppang,
Avalanche Canada
Cooler temps on Thursday to start the day with a gradual warming. Small inputs of snow are incrementally increasing the windslab thickness in alpine and treeline terrain so use caution as you transition into these areas.
Summary
Confidence
High
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were observed on Wednesday but observations were limited.
Snowpack Summary
Of the snow that was forecast, only 5-8cm fell over the past 24hrs with generally very little wind except in the alpine terrain. This new snow is overlying the weak facetted snow from last week as well as windslabs in alpine terrain up to 30cm thick along ridgelines and in gullied features. The windslabs have a distinct cakey feel along the ridgelines as you transition into more open areas. Deeper in the snowpack the Dec 5th crust is being found up to 2350m with weak facets and depth hoar below this layer. Thin areas are places a skier may be able to trigger a failure in these basal facets that can propagate across a feature. Continue to check the depth of the snow as you travel feeling into the snowpack for the hard over soft feeling (Crust over basal facets). In below treeline areas, the snowpack is generally shallow with lots of logs and alders present.
Weather Summary
The deep freeze returns? Thursday is looking to be around -30 to start the day then warming up into the -15 range during the day. Winds will be light but they are NE'ly again meaning the cold air is here once again. A few more cm's of snow may fall overnight but not a significant amount.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.
- Recent wind has varied in direction so watch for wind slabs on all aspects.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Windslabs exist in Alpine and Treeline, especially in lee and cross-loaded terrain.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Deep Persistent Slabs
This problem will be with us all season. At higher elevations there is more concern that these deep persistent weak layers could be human triggerable.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 18th, 2024 4:00PM
