Wind Slabs
- Alpin
- Limite forestière
- Sous la limite forestière
- Probabilité
- Possible - Likely
- Taille
- 1–2
Recent light snowfall combined with elevated and shifting winds have built wind slabs on a variety of aspects.
Flurries are forecast to bring 5-15 cm of new snow on Thursday. Expect avalanche danger to increase through the day as the snow accumulates and the wind redistributes the snow into reactive slabs.
Recent light snowfall combined with elevated and shifting winds have built wind slabs on a variety of aspects.
Wednesday Night:: Cloudy with clear periods. Light west wind. Alpine high temperatures around -8.
Thursday: Flurries, accumulation 5-10 cm. Moderate to strong southwest wind. Alpine high temperatures around -6. Freezing level 800 m
Friday: Scattered flurries. Moderate west wind. Alpine high temperatures around -7. Freezing level 700 m
Saturday: Scattered flurries. Light to moderate west wind. Alpine high temperatures around -5. Freezing level 1000 m
On Tuesday there were reports of several wind and storm slabs running naturally size 1, 1.5 and 2 on south, east and north aspects in the alpine. There were also a few skier/rider triggered size 1 and 1.5 thin storm slab avalanches.
Reports from Saturday, Sunday and Monday show numerous loose dry avalanche size 1-1.5 running in steep terrain in the alpine and at tree line. There were also a few skier and rider along with naturally triggered storm and wind slab avalanches size 1-1.5 on a variety of aspects in the alpine and at treeline.
30-70 cm of snow accumulating through the last week overlies older wind-affected snow at high elevations, or a melt-freeze or rain crust to a variable upper extent of 1700-2400 metres in elevation. Moderate to strong winds have redistributed this new snow onto a variety of aspects.
The mid and lower snowpack are generally well settled and strong. Although isolated, there are two deeper weak layers that may persist in some areas. A weak layer of surface hoar buried 90 to 170 cm deep may be found across the north of the region while a facet/crust layer from November may be found near the ground in shallower snowpack areas.