Avalanche forecast

Northwest Inland

Feb 22 – 23, 2017Avalanche Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 10 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

Changing wind directions may develop new wind slabs on Thursday.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Changing wind directions may develop new wind slabs on south through west aspects. Old wind slabs may continue to linger on other aspects.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    2–4
    A weakness at the bottom of the snowpack is lingering and may be triggered in shallow snowpack areas or by the weight of smaller avalanches.

Confidence

High -

Weather Forecast

Tonight: Mostly clear with moderate northerly winds and alpine temperatures around -15. Thursday: Mix of sun and cloud with strong northerly outflow winds and alpine temperatures around -17. Friday: Clear with strong northeast outflow winds and alpine temperatures around -15. Saturday: Overcast with flurries or light snow and moderate to strong northwest winds.

Avalanche Summary

Report on Tuesday of a size 2.0 avalanche on the "5000" run off Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers. This was a visual report from town, the sliding surface is unknown but suspected to be the recent storm snow.

Snowpack Summary

10-15 cm of recent storm snow has been transported by the wind, and now sits on a variety of old surface conditions including isolated wind slabs, pockets of soft snow (5-10 cm deep), sun crusts, and surface hoar. A supportive rain crust exists below 1000 m. A layer of surface hoar that was buried on February 10th may exist 30-60 cm below the surface, but there's a fair bit of uncertainty regarding the reactivity and distribution of this layer. A stiff mid pack sits above weak sugary snow near the ground. Although possibly dormant, this basal weakness has the potential to produce very large destructive avalanches.

Regions covered