Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Mar 5th, 2023 2:45PM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Storm Slabs.
cwild,
Avalanche Canada
The new snow will rest on a wind slab interface that has proven to be very unstable over the last few days.
Avoid the alpine and open areas, and aim for objectives below treeline, where the snow will be less affected by the strong winds.
Summary
Confidence
Avalanche Summary
A new size 2 slab avalanche was accidentally triggered by a group of skiers at the top of the Mur des Patrouilleurs of Mont Albert on sunday afternoon. 2 persons have been involved, but ended up at the top of the debris, without any injuries.
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Snowpack Summary
Near the summits, the wind has redistributed the available snow, exposing the crust or ice at the surface and creating an overlay of slabs of variable density. Cornices are building up in the alpine with the winds from the past couple days. In sheltered areas, the February 17th crust is found under 15 to 30 cm of low density snow. Facetted grains are slowly developing on this crust. The mid-snowpack is well consolidated, with the January 18th crust down 40 to 70 cm below the surface. The base of the snowpack consist of laminated crust and basal facets.
In general, the height of the snow cover varies from 70 to 90 cm in the valley to 100 to 150 cm in the middle mountains.
Weather Summary
Forecast for the Chic-Chocs ridges and summits.
Synopsis: The Chic-Chocs will be under the influence of a major low system that will bring uncertain amounts of snow over the next two days.
Sunday night and overnight: Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. Winds from 60 to 70 km/h from the north. Min. -12C.
Monday: Cloudy. 5 to 15 cm of snow. Winds from 55 to 65 km/h from the northeast. Max. -10C.
Tuesday: Cloudy. 3 to 5 cm of snow. Winds from 35 to 50 km/h from the northeast. Max. -6C.
Wednesday: Cloudy. Trace of snow. Winds from 50 to 60 km/h from the northeast. Max. -10C.
For more details, see the Chic-Chocs alpine forecast.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Be careful to keep storm day fever from luring you out into bigger terrain features.
- Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
- As the storm slab problem gets trickier, the easy solution is to choose more conservative terrain.
Problems
Storm Slabs
The uncertain amounts of snow expected, and the winds, will form storm slabs. The storm slabs will be widespread if more than 25 cm of snow falls, but regardless of the amounts of snow that will fall, pay extra attention to the slopes on the eastern slopes (NE-E-SE), where these storm slabs are resting on a wind slab interface that has proven to be very unstable in the past couple days. In many places, the new snow will be resting on a wind pressed or ice surface, which will act as an excellent glide plane.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Mar 6th, 2023 3:00PM
