Avalanche Forecast
Northwest Inland
Watch for variable wind redistribution patterns as you gain elevation. North-facing slopes have seen the most recent wind loading.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Use ridges or ribs to avoid pockets of wind-loaded snow.
- Avoid exposure to terrain traps where the consequences of a small avalanche could be serious.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been reported in the region.
Snowpack Summary
Warm temperatures have moistened snow at the surface at upper elevations and cooling over Sunday night is likely to form a new crust on the surface. Below the surface, 20 to 30 cm of dry snow overlies various surfaces including a freezing rain crust (which was reported as being hard in the alpine and breakable below treeline), old sun crusts and wind slabs.
A variable weak layer that formed in mid-December can be found in the upper snowpack. This mid-December layer is comprised of crusts on solar aspects and feathery surface hoar in sheltered locations.
The lower snowpack is generally well-settled with two prominent crusts. The late-November crust can be found 30-50 cm below the surface and the October crust is near the base of the snowpack.
Weather Forecast
Monday: Mainly cloudy with a mix of isolated flurries or light rain. Light to moderate southeast winds. Temperature inversion persisting with freezing levels to 1800 metres and alpine high temperatures of +3. Cooler at lower elevations.
Tuesday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light to moderate southwest winds. Freezing level returning to around 600 metres as the temperature inversion diminishes. Alpine high temperatures to -3.
Wednesday: Cloudy with scattered flurries bringing 2-5 cm of new snow, continuing overnight. Freezing level to 600 metres with alpine high temperatures of -3.
Avalanche Forecasts in your Inbox
Avalanche Canada has switched to an RSS feed for its daily forecasts. This is a much more flexible method that allows automatic delivery to your email inbox, or to an RSS reader of your choice.
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Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- Northwest Inland URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/northwest-inland.rss - Copy the url and paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS aggregator.
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Recent winds from variable directions have formed wind slabs in lee features. Wind slabs are likely to become more reactive with warm temperatures, at least in the short term.