Avalanche forecast

Kootenay Boundary

Jan 1, 2019Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 8 years ago

Avalanche danger

Wed
Thu
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Winds switching from southwest to northwest have created wind slabs on a variety of aspects in the past few days.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Moderate southwest winds during the last storm switching to northwest have created wind slabs on a variety of aspects.

Confidence

Moderate -

Weather Forecast

TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud / Light west wind / Alpine temperature -5 C possible temperature inversionWEDNESDAY: Isolated flurries / Light southwest wind / Alpine temperature -5 C / Freezing level 500 mTHURSDAY: Flurries, accumulation 5-10 cm / Moderate southwest wind / Alpine temperature -3 C / Freezing level 1000 m

Avalanche Summary

Most recent reports from the weekend indicate widespread thin storm slab avalanche activity size 1-1.5 that were 15cm deep with a some avalanches running to size 2 where thicker wind deposits existed (up to 40 cm). These were reported as explosives triggered, naturally triggered and some skier controlled.

Snowpack Summary

20-40 cm of snow sits on a thin sun crust on southerly aspects and small feathery surface hoar in sheltered areas.Beneath this, around 50 to 100 cm of snow sits on a rain crust and a weak layer of feathery surface hoar and sugary facets. Although there has not been a reported avalanche on this layer in over a week, snowpack test results tell us that it is still possible to trigger. The lower snowpack is well-settled.

Regions covered