Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Jan 21st, 2021 4:00PM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Wind Slabs.
Grant Statham,
The green brick is here, along with the removal of the Persistent Slab problem for the first time since early December. Although surface hoar layers remain visible, they are unreactive to testing, with no avalanches observed on them for over a week.
Summary
Weather Forecast
A ridge of high pressure dominates the region for the next few days and don't expect any new snow until early next week (5 days away). Friday will be a carbon copy of Thursday with temps ranging from -20s in the valley in the mornings, to -8 during the early afternoon along with light winds and blue skies. Beautiful days.
Snowpack Summary
A generally strong snowpack exists with several surface hoar layers visible in the upper meter, but they don't produce test results. Significant wind effect (ie: blasted) in all alpine areas and expect the odd isolated, hard windslab to linger in steep loaded areas in the high alpine. Soft surface snow remains just below ridge crests at treeline.
Avalanche Summary
One giant anomaly avalanche occurred Wednesday night - a size 3.5 from the big face on Mt. Lefroy. likely a result of extreme winds on Tuesday. These kind of unexpected large avalanches are a good reminder of the residual risk that always exists in the mountains, and should remind us how much uncertainty rules the roost.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
Wind Slabs
Extreme winds on Tuesday night blasted most alpine terrain and expect some lingering, isolated pockets windslab in leeward areas. Certainly lots of wind crust! At treeline, there is wind effect until just below the ridges, then its over.
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Jan 22nd, 2021 4:00PM
