Avalanche forecast

Kootenay Boundary

Feb 23 – 24, 2013Avalanche Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 14 years ago

Avalanche danger

Mon
Tue
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
Open full map

Highlights

Avalanche danger is lower than posted in areas with minimal recent snow.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely - Very Likely
    Size
    2–5
    Loading from new snow and wind has increased the avalanche danger. The presence of weak layers buried in the upper snowpack means there is a risk of triggering surprisingly large slabs.

Confidence

Poor - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain for the entire period

Weather Forecast

Sunday: Moderate to strong W winds. Light to moderate snow, starting late in the day. Alpine temperature around -4.Monday: Light to moderate NW winds. Light snow. Alpine temperature around -8.Tuesday: Light SW winds. Light snow. Alpine temperature around -11.

Avalanche Summary

A natural cycle to size 2.5 occurred overnight Friday. Explosives testing produced several more slabs to size 2.5 around treeline elevations on Saturday. These avalanches either failed within the storm snow or on a crust below the storm snow.

Snowpack Summary

Up to 55 cm snow now overlies weak interfaces buried in mid-February (mainly surface hoar/ sun crust layers). The storm slab above these interfaces has the potential for wide propagations and surprisingly large avalanches, especially where winds have shifted the snow into slabs in the lee of terrain breaks. Older snowpack weaknesses buried in the upper snowpack (Feb 4th and Jan 23 surface hoar/facet/sun crust layers) are still being tracked by professionals. There is the potential for triggering one of these deeper layers with a large trigger like an avalanche in motion, or from a thin-spot trigger point. The lower snowpack is generally well settled.

Regions covered