Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 23rd, 2013 8:32AM
The alpine rating is Storm Slabs and Deep Persistent Slabs.
, the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems includeSummary
Confidence
Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain for the entire period
Weather Forecast
Thursday: Strong S to SW winds. Alpine temperature near -8. 10-15 cm snow, mostly arriving late in the day.Friday: Strong SW winds. Alpine temperature near -5. 5-15 cm snow.Saturday: Light SW winds. Alpine temperature near -6. Very light snow.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported.
Snowpack Summary
New snow is landing on a medley of snow surfaces including hard and soft wind slabs, scoured slopes, blue ice and thin melt-freeze crusts. 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
Storm Slabs
New storm slabs and wind slabs are likely to develop during the next few days.
Avoid freshly wind loaded features.>Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain.>
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
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.
Be aware of thin areas that may propagate to deeper instabilites.>
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 24th, 2013 2:00PM