Avalanche forecast

Northwest Inland

Feb 26 – 27, 2016Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Avalanche danger is higher in places where the recent storm dropped the most snow.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–3
    New and old wind slabs are lurking on many alpine and treeline slopes.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    3–6
    A cornice fall or wind slab could step down and trigger a deeply buried weak layer, creating a surprisingly large avalanche.

Avalanche Summary

Isolated wind slab avalanches were reported over the last few days. Several large persistent slabs failed naturally in the north of the region last weekend. This weak layer was reported to be reactive to skier triggering from thin spots, as well as heavy triggers such as a smaller avalanches or cornice failures.

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

Saturday is expected to be cloudy with a few flurries. A front on Sunday brings light snow, moderate SW winds and cooling temperatures. Snowfall and winds ease on Monday.

Snowpack Summary

Recent snow has been heaviest in the west and north of the region, creating new storm slabs and wind slabs. It also rained up to 1500 m in the south and 1000 m in the north on Thursday, so the low elevation snow surface is likely to turn into a crust once temperatures drop. The recent snow overlies widespread hard old wind slabs, scoured surfaces, a thin sun crust on sunny aspects, and surface hoar in isolated sheltered and shady locations. A melt freeze crust buried around February 12th, down about 50-80 cm, extends up to about 2000 m. A layer of surface hoar buried late in January remains a lingering concern. Shallow snowpack areas may also have a weak base of facets near the ground.

Regions covered