Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 21st, 2016 8:00AM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Persistent Slabs.
danyelle magnan,
Parks Canada
A warm and windy storm will arrive today. Avalanche danger will increase through the day as snow and wind add to the load over a persistent weak layer.
Summary
Weather Forecast
A weak "pineapple express" will arrive today. Today expect flurries, alpine temps of -3 and moderate S'ly winds. By Friday morning we expect up to 25cm of new snow. Friday will bring another 20cm of snow, freezing levels rising to 1700m and strong SW winds. On Sat expect flurries, with lowering freezing levels and gusty winds at ridgetop.
Snowpack Summary
A soft slab that sits on the January 4th interface, down ~40cm. This interface is variable; with the largest surface hoar below 1700m. It appears to be touchiest in our region on steep S-SW aspects where the surface hoar sits on a sun crust. On other aspects it sits on ~20cm of loose facets. Moderate S'ly winds yesterday formed pockets of windslab.
Avalanche Summary
A size 2.5 was accidentally triggered by skiers on Tuesday on a S aspect at 2500m. It was 40-50cm deep, 40m wide and ran 200m. Only 3 size 1.5 natural avalanches were observed yesterday, but on Tuesday numerous size 2 natural avalanches occurred from all aspects and ran onto the avalanche fans. Sluffing continues to occur when skiing steep slopes.
Confidence
Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain
Problems
Persistent Slabs
The incoming storm has the potential to add significant load to a variable and hard to predict weak layer (see details tab). It has been easily triggered where a sun crust is buried, but is also expected to become more reactive at lower elevations.
Ride slopes one at a time and spot your partners from safe locations.Use caution on open slopes and convex rolls
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 22nd, 2016 8:00AM
