Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 6th, 2016 8:07AM

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

Avalanche Canada 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

An icon showing 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

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Jan 7th, 2016 2:00PM

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