Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 10th, 2017 3:58PM

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

mgrist, Avalanche Canada

South Coast.

Fresh storm slabs are sitting on a new crust at treeline and below. Use small slopes with low consequence to test the bond of the storm snow.

Summary

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

Seasonal temperatures and isolated flurries through the weekend. Significant warming Monday onwards. SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with isolated flurriesÂ / Light, southwesterly winds/ Freezing level around 900 m. SUNDAY: Mix of sun and cloud / Light, southwesterly winds / Freezing level rising to 1000 m. MONDAY: Sunny with cloudy periods, warming significantly with highs to +5 CelsiusÂ / Moderate southwesterly winds / Freezing level around 2200 m.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches reported.

Snowpack Summary

We've had 15-20cm of wet heavy snow at treeline since Thursday afternoon, sitting on 20-30 cm drier snow. This makes 50-70 cm of cumulative storm snow which is bonding well to a knife hard crust buried Feb 3rd. In the alpine, where all of the precipitation has fallen as snow, the storm slabs will remain touchy and likely to human trigger on Saturday. The mid and lower snowpack are settled and well bonded with the average snowpack depth at treeline 250-300 cm.

Problems

Storm Slabs

Treeline and below will have fresh small storm slabs sitting on the new crust. Storm slabs in the alpine will be much larger and more reactive than shown here, especially on northerly aspects.

Use small slopes with low consequence to test the bond of the storm snow at treeline and below.Use caution in lee areas in the alpine and treeline. Storm snow will form slabs.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Feb 11th, 2017 2:00PM