Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 13th, 2015 8:21AM

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

Avalanche Canada bcorrigan, Avalanche Canada

Staying safe involves careful consideration during this "drought" of fresh soft snow. Be conservative in your terrain choices.

Summary

Confidence

Good - Due to the number and quality of field observations

Weather Forecast

The next pacific system is forecast for Thursday with a break on Friday then more precipitation on Saturday. Freezing levels should remain around 1000m with a spike to over 2000m on Wednesday, then returning to the 1000m level for the duration of the precipitation event on the weekend.

Avalanche Summary

No report of avalanche activity from yesterday, but there have been reports of snowballing on steep solar aspects.

Snowpack Summary

A thick supportive surface crust has capped most of the snowpack above 1500 metres.  Breakable crust below 1500 metres.  Reports of lingering soft snow and surface hoar development to ridge tops on North aspects.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

An icon showing Persistent Slabs
Pockets of wind-blown snow are the spots to watch out for now.  A small avalanche might trigger a deep instability.
Be aware of thin areas where human-triggering may be possible and may propagate to deeper instabilities.>Avoid steep convexities.>

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely

Expected Size

3 - 5

Valid until: Jan 14th, 2015 2:00PM