Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Dec 9th, 2018 3:53PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs.

shorton, Avalanche Canada

South Rockies.

Strong wind in the forecast could create fresh slabs in the alpine.

Summary

Confidence

Moderate - Wind effect is extremely variable

Weather Forecast

SUNDAY NIGHT: Cloudy, strong wind out of the west, alpine temperatures drop to -10 C.MONDAY: Cloudy with light flurries and trace accumulations, strong wind out of the west, alpine high temperatures around -6 C.TUESDAY: Flurries with about 5 cm of accumulation (but amounts are fairly uncertain at this point), strong wind out of the west, alpine high temperatures around -4 C.WEDNESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, strong wind increasing to extreme throughout the day, alpine temperatures warming to -2 C.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported in the region. Small wind slabs have been reported in neighboring regions.

Snowpack Summary

Early season conditions prevail in this region with roughly 30-90 cm of snow in alpine areas and much less at lower elevations. Surface conditions may range from soft power, hard wind slab, and some sun crusts. Isolated pockets of stiff wind slab likely exist on leeward slopes. The bottom half of the snowpack is composed of weak facets and crusts. This layer has not been active, but terrain features like smooth alpine bowls with variable snowpack depths are still suspect given this snowpack structure.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Strong wind will transport loose snow and potentially form reactive slabs. Wind slabs have the potential for wide propagations if they step down to the weak snow in the lower snowpack.

Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.Be alert to conditions that change with elevation, aspect and exposure to wind.If triggered the wind slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, North West.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Dec 10th, 2018 2:00PM