Avalanche forecast

Sea To Sky

Dec 23, 2016Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 10 years ago

Avalanche danger

Fri
Sat
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Heading into a stable weather pattern for weekend

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Recent strong southwest winds have created wind slabs in the lee of terrain features

Confidence

High - The weather pattern is stable

Weather Forecast

Friday: Mainly cloudy / Light northerly wind / Alpine temperature -9Saturday: Sunny with cloudy periods/ Light northeast wind / Alpine temperature -10Sunday: Mix of sun and cloud / Light west wind / Alpine temperature -10 

Avalanche Summary

Recent reports from Wednesday in the region show explosives triggering wind slabs to size 1.5 in the alpine. There is no other recent significant activity to report. 

Snowpack Summary

The storm snow from earlier this week has been redistributed in the alpine and exposed treeline by strong to extreme winds. This has left a variety of hard surfaces that may include sastrugi, wind crust and hard wind slab. This surface has now been covered by 5-10cm of new snow that fell on Thursday. In sheltered areas treeline and below 30-50cm of snow overlies the previous variable snow surface from last week, which included weak faceted snow or surface hoar. The widespread mid-November crust is typically down 1-2m in the snowpack. Recent snowpack and explosive tests have shown the crust to be unreactive, but it could remain a problem in shallow alpine start zones.

Regions covered