Avalanche forecast

Cariboos

Feb 10 – 11, 2012Avalanche Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 15 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Avalanche problems

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2–6
    Large cornices are looming over many slopes. They are weakest when it's warm and sunny. A falling chunk could trigger a large avalanche on the slope below.

Confidence

Good - -1

Weather Forecast

A firmly embedded ridge of high pressure over Alberta seems to be causing systems to fizzle once they reach the Columbia Mountains. Although there may be sunny breaks on Saturday, conditions will be mostly cloudy for the forecast period with trace amounts of snowfall possible each day. Winds will be light and northwesterly with alpine temperatures trending from -7.0 on Saturday to -13.0 by Monday.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanche activity to report.

Snowpack Summary

In general the snowpack is well settled and riders have gained confidence in steeper terrain. Very warm alpine temperatures from last weekend melted surface snow layers and a crust now exists to ridge top on solar aspects. Large weak cornices are plentiful and small wind slabs may exist in isolated terrain in the alpine. Below about 1500m, crust/facet layers buried in early January as well as widespread facets that were buried on January 20th are still on the radar of operators in the region. These layers represent a low probability/high consequence scenario. If you're traveling in the mountains now is a great time to take stock of current surface conditions (surface hoar, crusts, facets) that will become an issue once buried.

Regions covered