Avalanche forecast

South Rockies

Feb 6 – 7, 2014Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

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Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–3
    North and east winds have transported snow onto south and west slopes which are traditionally scoured by the prevailing winds. Although possibly stubborn to trigger, there may be consequences of small avalanches triggered in cliffs or terrain traps.

Confidence

Good - The weather pattern is stable

Weather Forecast

Overnight and Friday : Continued cold and clear with valley lows near -30 overnight with light southwest winds. Alpine highs during the day near -15 with light southeast winds. Cloud developing during the day with a trace of light dry new snow.Saturday : Decreasing cloud cover in the early morning seeing a return to cold and clear conditions. Light winds from the northeast.Sunday : Clear with alpine highs around -15 and moderate southwest winds.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches were reported.

Snowpack Summary

Wind slabs 10-40cm thick have formed over the last few days in the alpine on various aspects. At treeline and below in sheltered areas approximately 5-15cm of light dry snow overlies a variety of old surfaces including surface hoar and/or a melt freeze crust on solar aspects. The cold temperatures continue to facet the near surface layers. This may improve the ski and sledding quality of the surface snow in the short term, however it also has the potential to create a weak layer if it is buried later in the season. The deep persistent layers of facets and depth hoar remain near the bottom of the snowpack and in shallow areas the entire snowpack consists of these weak crystals, which appear to have become less reactive with the current cold and static weather pattern. We expect that there has been little improvement in the bonding of these persistent weak layers during this cold period and they may still "wake up" (become reactive again) later in the season.

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