Bollettino valanghe

Kootenay Boundary

Feb 10 – 11, 2015Avalanche Canada
Vedi sulla mappa
Archiviato · scaduto 12 years ago

Pericolo valanghe

Thu
Fri
Alta quota
3 · Marcato
Limite del bosco
3 · Marcato
Sotto il limite
2 · Moderato
Apri la mappa completa

In sintesi

What will all the forecast warming do to the snowpack? I'm honestly not sure. With this much uncertainty sticking to conservative terrain may be the only reasonable course of action.

Problemi valanghivi

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Possible
    Dimensione
    3–6
    Buried persistent weak layers in the mid snowpack have been over-loaded by the new storm snow. Very large and destructive avalanches have occurred under light loads, and conservative terrain selection remains critical.

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Possible - Likely
    Dimensione
    1–5
    At higher elevations deep and destructive storm slabs overlie a weak crust/ surface hoar interface. Very large avalanches may still be possible under light loads, especially with forecast warming and possible solar radiation later in the week.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Possible - Likely
    Dimensione
    1–3
    Pushy loose wet and wet slab avalanches remain a concern at lower elevations where rain has saturated the snowpack. Pay close attention to daytime temperatures, and whether snow surfaces are moist or refrozen.

Confidence

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

Weather Forecast

The big story for the next few days is the freezing level which should be on the rise throughout the period. Wednesday: Freezing level around 1800m, no precipitation, Light variable winds at all elevations. Thursday: Freezing level starts near 1800m, rising to around 2500m by the afternoon. Winds light at treeline, strong west at upper elevations. No precipitation. Friday: Freezing should be hovering around 3000m all day. Light winds at treeline, moderate SW winds at ridgetop. No precipitation.

Avalanche Summary

Observations have been essentially non-existent in recent days. This likely speaks more to a lack of observers rather than actual conditions. I'm confident recent storm loading has produced large storm slab avalanches at higher elevations, while loose wet or wet slab avalanche activity occurred at lower elevations where rain fell.

Snowpack Summary

Since February 5th, moderate to heavy precipitation fell throughout the region. The rain line during the storms generally hovered around 1700m, although there were periods where rain fell into the alpine. In the alpine, heavy accumulations of moist, dense snow have been pushed by strong southwest winds into much deeper deposits in upper elevation lee terrain. The recent storm snow overlies a hard crust layer (which may have overlying surface hoar) which was formed in late January. At lower elevations, continuous rain has saturated the snowpack. I suspect cornices are large and fragile.In the mid to lower snowpack, you may find the mid-December crust/facet/surface hoar combo. At lower elevations rain has likely destroyed what was left of this layer. At higher elevations recent storm loading may have produced very large avalanches at this interface, although observations have been extremely limited.

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