Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Dec 13th, 2020 3:00PM

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

Avalanche Canada matt, Avalanche Canada

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Still pretty good skiing right now. The thing to watch will be the incoming wind. Its K-Country, we know they are coming, but we don't know exactly when. Keep your eyes open for it.

Summary

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Morning low of -15 with a daytime high of -10C. Trace snow and light winds from the west. Alpine winds will increase during the day and max out at 30-35km/hr, still from the west.

Avalanche Summary

Nothing new today.

Snowpack Summary

A hint of wind last night moved some snow around up high which created a few non-reactive windslabs. We seem to have a slightly different snowpack in each drainage. In the Hero's Knob area the new snow rests on a solid mid-pack made up of either a windslab, or a thick re-frozen layer from the warm spell awhile back. In many places the crust is smooth and its easy to scrub off the storm snow. For now all the crusts are well settled and hard to trigger.

Terrain and Travel

  • Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
  • Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs

Pockets of wind slab can be found in lee and cross-loaded terrain. Some of these are very dense, hard slabs. When the winds pick up, expect new slabs to form quickly.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Persistent Slabs

An icon showing Persistent Slabs

There seems to be lots of variability with this layer. As always, thin areas transitioning to localized wind loaded pockets will be more sensitive.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Dec 14th, 2020 3:00PM