Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 1st, 2015 8:29AM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is moderate. Known problems include Loose Dry and Persistent Slabs.

ghelgeson, Avalanche Canada

Kootenay Boundary.

Practice good sluff management, especially if you're headed into bigger terrain.

Summary

Confidence

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Weather Forecast

The region should pick up 1 to 5 cm Sunday night and another few cm on Monday. Generally light SW winds are expected while the freezing level remains at valley bottom. Looks like it goes high and dry until Thursday night when we're expecting another shot of very warm SW air and heavy precipitation, (otherwise known as Pineapple Express) which is expected to intensify through the weekend with the freezing level rising above the peaks of the Kootenay Boundary. Don't shoot the messenger.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported.

Snowpack Summary

Recent sunny weather and high freezing levels have created a mostly supportive widespread melt-freeze crust thats been reported on all aspects up to 2400m. A widespread new layer of surface hoar up to 15mm in size is said to be developing on top of this crust. The mid-January weak layer of buried surface hoar is down about 20-50 cm and continues to give planar results in snow profile tests. The mid-December crust/facet/surface hoar layer can be found down around 50cm deep in low snowpack areas, and about 100cm down in deeper snowpack areas. There may still be potential to trigger this deeper layer from shallow spots and in very isolated areas.

Problems

Loose Dry

Small loose snow avalanches are expected as the new snow comes to rest on the hard crust/surface hoar interface that was buried on Jan. 31.

Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain.>Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2

Persistent Slabs

Triggering a persistent slab is less likely since the surface crust formed and temperatures dropped. However there may still be potential to trigger a weak layer from a thin spot at upper elevations.

Be aware of thin areas that may propagate to deeper instabilities, especially in areas where the upper crust is not supportive.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely

Expected Size

3 - 5

Valid until: Feb 2nd, 2015 2:00PM