Avalanche forecast

Kootenay Boundary

Feb 10 – 11, 2012Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Avalanche problems

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Sluffs are running fast and far on steep slopes. Although generally small, they could take you for a ride and terrain traps in the runout can greatly increase the consequences.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    3–7
    Very large avalanches remain a concern in shallow rocky areas with heavy triggers, such as cornice falls and step-down avalanches.

Confidence

Good - -1

Weather Forecast

A series of weak short waves move over the southern half of the province this weekend bringing high cloud and very little in the way of precipitation. Temps remain mild, just a few degrees below 0 at 1500m. Winds look to be meek, whispering out of the NW @ 5 - 15 km/h.

Avalanche Summary

Loose faceted surface snow is sluffing readily in steep terrain and gaining considerable mass. Deep persistent slab avalanches remain possible with heavy triggers in shallow rocky snowpack areas on unsupported slopes. Check out the Avalanche Image Gallery under the Library tab for some photos of recent deep persistent slab avalanches in the region.

Snowpack Summary

Light amounts of fresh snow has buried the previous snow surface which includes surface hoar up to 30mm at ridgetop and 50mm in valley bottoms, 30cm of near-surface facets on shady sheltered slopes, and surface crusts on sun-exposed slopes. Exposed alpine and treeline areas are wind-affected and you may still find the odd isolated pocket of hard wind slab. Concerns remain for the mid-December persistent weakness down around 80-100cm. Basal facets were recently responsible for a large whumpf on a shallow south facing treeline slope in the Rossland Range and gave very easy and sudden compression tests results where they were found down 60cm.

Regions covered