Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 1st, 2015 7:10AM

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

Peter, Avalanche Canada

Kootenay Boundary.

The avalanche danger assumes only light snow beginning on Monday afternoon. If we see more than 5 cm and it arrives early, then add a bit more yellow to the danger ratings for Monday.

Summary

Confidence

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Monday

Weather Forecast

Monday: Mainly cloudy with possible flurries â€“ up to 5 cm possible. The freezing level is around 500-800 m. Ridge winds are moderate from the north. Tuesday and Wednesday: Mainly sunny and a few degrees cooler (lows close to -15 and highs near -6). Winds are generally light from the W-NW.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been reported in the past few days.

Snowpack Summary

Shady and sheltered slopes have around 5-10 cm of fresh low-density snow, with thin wind slabs forming in exposed lee terrain. Sun-exposed slopes likely have a thin sun crust on the surface. The most prominent feature in the snowpack is a thick crust, down 5-30 cm. This crust is supportive all the way to ridge crest and is effectively "capping" the snowpack, keeping riders from tickling any deeper weak layers. There are still weak layers below this crust that we'll continue to monitor, but for now these layers are dormant. We would likely need significant warming and/or heavy loading to re-activate them.

Problems

Wind Slabs

There's still uncertainty regarding how much snow we could see on Monday. I'm hedging my bets on light snow and moderate northerly winds, which could combine to produce fresh wind slabs in exposed lee terrain.

Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind loaded snow.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Mar 2nd, 2015 2:00PM