Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 10th, 2012 8:27AM

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

jfloyer, Avalanche Canada

Northwest Inland.

Summary

Confidence

Good - -1

Weather Forecast

Saturday: Should stay dry with clouds and light winds that will pick up in the afternoon. Freezing level around 900 m. Overnight Saturday: light precipitation with 2-4 mm expected. Strong southerly winds. Sunday: Lingering flurries, otherwise dry with high pressure building. Freezing level around 700 m. Monday: Dry and sunny. Light winds.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

A very light skiff of snow may have buried a surface hoar layer that lies on top of old surfaces comprising crusts and old wind slab. However, with only a centimetre or so of new snow, it's not certain that surface hoar crystals of 5 mm or more would get properly buried. Successive melt-freeze cycles have produced crusts on all aspects at lower elevations as well as on south-facing slopes higher up. The old wind slabs are no longer causing concern in most areas. A facet layer, which formed around 20th January, is buried around 60 cm and is reported to be gaining strength. It showed hard, resistant planar results in a compression test at treeline in the Hankin area on Sunday.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Old, variable wind slabs are becoming increasingly stubborn and difficult to trigger.

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 4

Valid until: Feb 11th, 2012 3:00AM