Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 25th, 2013 9:25AM

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

pgoddard, Avalanche Canada

Northwest Inland.

Summary

Confidence

Poor - Due to limited field observations

Weather Forecast

Saturday: Light W winds, becoming strong NW. Alpine temperature near -7. Very light snow.Sunday: Strong W winds, becoming strong to extreme NW. Alpine temperature near -8. 5-15 cm snow.Monday: Light W wind. Alpine temperature near -14. Very light snow.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

New snow is landing on a medley of old surfaces including hard and soft wind slabs, scoured slopes, blue ice and thin melt-freeze crusts. Winds are likely to shift snow into slabs in the lee of terrain breaks such as ridges and ribs. Surface hoar layers buried in the upper snowpack are patchy in their distribution. Recent snowpack tests recently gave generally hard to no results near Smithers. An otherwise strong mid-pack overlies a weak base layer of facets/depth hoar. The snowpack depth is around 100 cm at treeline.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind slabs may be found behind terrain breaks such as ridges and ribs.

Avoid freshly wind loaded features.>Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.>Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain in areas sheltered from the wind.>

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

1 - 4

Deep Persistent Slabs

A deeply buried weak layer near the base of the snowpack could be triggered by large loads such as a cornice collapse or from a thin-spot trigger point.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 6

Valid until: Jan 26th, 2013 2:00PM