Avalanche forecast

South Rockies

Feb 18 – 19, 2015Avalanche Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 12 years ago

Avalanche danger

Fri
Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

Make a sacrifice to the snow gods, become a member of Avalanche Canada today at avalanche.ca/membership

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–4
    Hard wind slabs may be lurking below ridge crests and in exposed gullies. These isolated pockets of stiff snow can fracture surprising distances above trigger points and into low-angled terrain catching people by surprise.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–5
    Large avalanches are unlikely but possible in the high alpine where a large trigger in the right spot could cause an avalanche on a buried persistent week layer.

Confidence

Good - The weather pattern is stable

Weather Forecast

Conditions will remain dry and mild through the forecast period with what we call diurnal fluctuations in the freezing level (the spring-like pattern where the temperature can drop by up to 10 degrees overnight only to rise again through the day). Thursday will see mainly cloudy skies with light westerly winds and a freezing level rising from 1000 to 1800m. Dry conditions will continue into Friday although an increasing North to North East flow may bring isolated flurries overnight, the freezing level will reach a high of 1500m. This pattern continues into Saturday with up to 5 cm of dust on crust expected.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported recently

Snowpack Summary

A thick, solid crust can be found on the surface on all but highest alpine slopes. The best riding can be found in the North of the region right now where a thin dusting covers old wind pressed snow in the alpine.  This snow may have been moved around by the winds forming isolated thin wind slabs in lee features. Below 2200 to 2400m the crust is effectively capping the snowpack and protecting the buried persistent week layers we've been worried about for the last couple of weeks. The mid-January surface hoar is around 60 to 80cm down. The mid-December crust is becoming harder to find but where it does exist (mainly at treeline elevations) it is over a meter down. Although these layers are protected I think that a large trigger (like a cornice collapse) in the right place could still trigger a very large avalanche.

Regions covered