Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Dec 22nd, 2016 4:16PM

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

mbender, Avalanche Canada

Sea To Sky.

Heading into a stable weather pattern for weekend

Summary

Confidence

High - The weather pattern is stable

Weather Forecast

Friday: Mainly cloudy / Light northerly wind / Alpine temperature -9Saturday: Sunny with cloudy periods/ Light northeast wind / Alpine temperature -10Sunday: Mix of sun and cloud / Light west wind / Alpine temperature -10Â

Avalanche Summary

Recent reports from Wednesday in the region show explosives triggering wind slabs to size 1.5 in the alpine. There is no other recent significant activity to report.Â

Snowpack Summary

The storm snow from earlier this week has been redistributed in the alpine and exposed treeline by strong to extreme winds. This has left a variety of hard surfaces that may include sastrugi, wind crust and hard wind slab. This surface has now been covered by 5-10cm of new snow that fell on Thursday. In sheltered areas treeline and below 30-50cm of snow overlies the previous variable snow surface from last week, which included weak faceted snow or surface hoar. The widespread mid-November crust is typically down 1-2m in the snowpack. Recent snowpack and explosive tests have shown the crust to be unreactive, but it could remain a problem in shallow alpine start zones.

Problems

Wind Slabs

Recent strong southwest winds have created wind slabs in the lee of terrain features

Be cautious as you transition into wind affected terrain.Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.Dig down to find and test weak layers before committing to a line.

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Dec 23rd, 2016 2:00PM