Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 20th, 2015 7:45AM

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

Avalanche Canada Peter, Avalanche Canada

Dry and mild conditions should persist for at least one more day. Be alert to changing conditions from daytime warming.

Summary

Confidence

Good

Weather Forecast

Synopsis: The ridge of high pressure will maintain dry and mild conditions on Wednesday. Freezing levels could climb to a little over 1500 m and ridge winds remain light. Expect more cloud with a chance of flurries on Thursday. The freezing level should drop back to 1000-1200 m and we could see periods of moderate SW winds. The next big system appears to arrive on Friday bringing moderate to heavy precipitation, rising freezing levels, and strong SW ridge winds.

Avalanche Summary

Recent avalanche activity has progressed from a relatively small natural avalanche cycle on Saturday and Sunday, to numerous explosive and rider triggered avalanches up to size 2 on Monday. Most of the recent activity has been from wind loaded features at or above treeline, with some smaller skier controlled results on steep convex rolls below treeline. The likelihood of triggering stubborn wind slabs may be decreasing with cooler temperatures and drier conditions.

Snowpack Summary

Up to 50 cm of recent storm snow sits on a hard crust and/or surface hoar layer. Strong SW winds redistributed snow in exposed terrain creating deep and dense wind slabs in lee features. The new snow seems to be bonding well to the crust, which is most pronounced between about 1500 m and 2200 m. The distribution of the surface hoar seems spotty across the region, but some operators found it to be widespread in their tenure before the snow began burying it. Where the surface hoar exists, whumpfing indicates the touchiness of this interface. Deeper snowpack weaknesses have fallen off the radar, but they could be reawakened with a very heavy load (like a cornice fall or wind slab) in the wrong spot (like a thin snowpack area).

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs
Watch for pockets of reactive wind slab on steep convex shaped slopes near ridge top. Also, cornices could be fragile if temperatures warm up and the sun it out.
Give cornices a wide berth when travelling on or below ridges.>Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Loose Wet

An icon showing Loose Wet
If the sun hangs around on Wednesday we could see more loose wet activity on steep sun-exposed slopes during the day. 
Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Jan 21st, 2015 2:00PM