Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 17th, 2012 9:42AM
The alpine rating is Wind Slabs and Loose Dry.
, the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems includeSummary
Confidence
Fair - Due to limited field observations
Weather Forecast
The region remains in the grasp of an Arctic Air mass. It looks like this pattern will persist through at least Friday. Wednesday looks very similar to today. Brutally cold temperatures: At 1500 m expect a high of -18 and low of -30. Winds will continue to blow at moderate to strong values out of the E, NE at all elevations. Bundle up!
Avalanche Summary
Several natural slab avalanches to size 2 were reported on S through SW facing slopes on Monday. Skiers were able to trigger small wind slabs at TL Monday too.
Snowpack Summary
Outflow winds have redistributed the low density snow from the last storm into widespread hard & soft slabs that can be found in the alpine and at treeline. In wind sheltered areas the storm snow has been bonding quite well to the old snow surface, but it's getting pretty tough to find wind sheltered areas with the recent onslaught of brutally cold arctic winds. A thin wind slab is being reported in wind exposed areas below treeline as well. Snowpack depths vary from 3.5 to 5 m across the region. In this part of the province, the mid-December surface hoar/facet combo layer is inactive as it's now 2.5 m below the snow surface. For the most part, avalanche concerns are limited to storm snow instabilities.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Loose Dry
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 18th, 2012 8:00AM