Avalanche forecast

South Rockies

Dec 10 – 11, 2015Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Sun
Alpine
No rating
Treeline
No rating
Below
No rating
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Highlights

The slopes with the best riding conditions are also the most dangerous - steep alpine slopes

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    2–5
    Fresh snow will likely be sensitive to human triggers throughout the forecast period. Slabs will be particularly deep and weak on the downwind side of ridge crests and other similar terrain breaks.

Confidence

Low - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

Friday: A mix of sun and cloud with a chance of light snow flurries. Freeing level near valley bottoms and light southwesterly winds. Saturday: Increasing cloud and wind with flurries in the afternoon and freezing level remaining in valley bottoms. Sunday: 5-15cm of fresh snow possible by sunday morning, with another 2-5 throughout the day. Freezing level near valley bottom with moderate to strong southwesterly ridgetop winds.

Avalanche Summary

Reports from Wednesday are limited but include evidence of a large natural avalanche cycle at alpine and treeline elevations with fresh debris visible in many paths and roaring avalanche heard throughout the day.

Snowpack Summary

Continued snowfall brings total treeline snowpack depths to over a metre, with even more in the alpine, but it diminishes quickly below treeline. Recent storm and wind slabs, probably 40-70 cm thick, are bonding poorly to the old snow surface buried early December, which is probably a crust and/or a combination of facets and buried surface hoar. Below that a thick layer of facets is probably bonding poorly to the thick mid-November crust. We're receiving very little information from the region, so please consider sharing your observations via the Mountain Information Network.

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