Avalanche forecast

South Coast

Jan 18 – 19, 2015Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Give the recent snow a day or two to find its equilibrium before venturing into exposed avalanche terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–5
    Recent winds have built wind slabs on lee slopes. These may be easy to trigger with the weight of a person. 

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Storm snow is showing a poor bond to the surface it fell on, meaning storm slabs may be touchy.  

Confidence

Fair - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

A weak ridge provides a break from heavy precipitation, but doesn't bring clear skies, through Monday and Tuesday.  The freezing level slowly falls to near 800 m and SW winds are light to moderate. On Wednesday, around 5 cm snow is expected, with gradually warming temperatures.

Avalanche Summary

Several size 2 natural wind slabs were observed in the north of the region on Saturday.

Snowpack Summary

Recent snow and strong SW winds have led to wind slabs in wind-affected terrain and storm slabs elsewhere. These overlie a hard crust and/or surface hoar. Easy and propagating results in snowpack tests show the potential for avalanches to fail at this interface below the storm snow. Wind slabs and storm slabs may be easy to trigger with the weight of a person or snowmobile. Deeper snowpack weaknesses are still on our radar, but seem to be dormant for the time being.

Regions covered