Avalanche forecast

South Coast

Feb 21, 2018Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

The snow is heavily wind-affected. Triggering a wind slab is more likely on southerly slopes where a poor bond to the buried crust exists. Stick to sheltered trees to find the best and safest riding.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Strong northerly winds have formed fresh slabs at higher elevations. Wind slabs may be more reactive to human triggers on solar aspects where they sit on a buried crust. Loose dry sluffing is likely from steeper terrain features.

  • Cornices

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Large cornices have formed along ridgelines. Cornices are inherently unstable, unpredictable, and demand respect.

Confidence

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

A fairly benign weather pattern through the forecast period.Wednesday: Mostly cloudy with some sunny periods and a chance of flurries. An alpine high temperature of -8 with generally light westerly winds and some strong gusts.Thursday: Mostly sunny with an alpine high temperature of -5. Ridgetop winds light to moderate from the northeast.Friday: Cloudy with new snow 5-15 cm. Alpine temperatures near -3 and ridgetop winds moderate with strong gusts from the southwest.

Avalanche Summary

Dry loose avalanches up to size 1 were reactive to skier traffic on Monday.

Snowpack Summary

In exposed terrain, strong north winds have scoured north facing slopes and loaded south facing slopes. In sheltered terrain, cold weather is preserving 30-50 cm of low density snow. A hard rain crust that extends into alpine terrain is buried about 40 cm beneath the recent storm snow. Reports suggest the snow has a poor bond to the crust with test results showing sudden planar characteristics. This means there's a potential for slab avalanches on any steep or convex terrain feature. Monitor the bond of the snow to this crust closely. There are no significant layers of concern below the crust.

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