Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 6th, 2016 8:07AM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Wind Slabs.
esharp,
Avalanche Canada
The new snow may hide reactive hard wind slabs at treeline and in the alpine.
Summary
Confidence
High
Weather Forecast
A descending artic front is going to dominate the weather for the next few days with a cooling and clearing trend. Mainly light northeasterly winds on Thursday will bring some upslope precipitation with accumulations of up to 10cm expected and a high of -7 early in the day. Friday will be sunny with cloudy periods, light northwesterly winds, and a high of -10. Saturday will be mainly sunny with a high of -8, although there is some indication an inversion may be developing, and light westerly winds.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported recently.
Snowpack Summary
The Avalanche Canada field team have finding widespread wind effect with thin but stiff laminated wind slabs in lee features at treeline and in the alpine. These slabs have been failing under moderate loads in recent snow pit tests and show propagation propensity. This suggests the potential for human triggering resulting in surprisingly large avalanches considering the thickness of the slab. At lower elevations a skiff of snow may be covering a layer or recently buried surface hoar. The early December crust can be found down around 60cm.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Snow pit tests suggest that hard wind slabs may be triggered by riders or skiers in the alpine and at treeline. Hard slabs are often susceptible to being triggered from below and can cause surprisingly large avalanches.
Be aware of the potential for wide propagations due to the presence of hard windslabs.>Today is not the day to set the record highmark.>
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 7th, 2016 2:00PM
