- Date
- Sunday, December 1, 2019
Here's what we know
Judging by what little information we have received so far this year, there is one thing we know for sure; there is snow in the North Rockies! The question is how much exists in what locations. We’ll try to paint a picture of what the snow and avalanche situation looks like to date.
First off, thank you to the folks who have submitted Mountain Information Network (MIN) posts so far this year.
Snowpack
By all accounts there seems to be anywhere from 70-180 cm of snow at the treeline elevation band depending on location throughout the region. If you were to travel to the eastern part of the region in the Tumbler Ridge area, you might expect to find the snowpack to be around 70-150 cm at treeline. If you were more west, like around Pine Pass and Torpy or Renshaw, you could expect to find about 130-160 cm of snow at tree line. Anticipate the alpine elevation band to have highly variable snowpack depths due to the wind blowing from a variety of directions.
There have been several warm weather events through the end of October and November that have influenced how the snowpack has developed. This has led to the presence of a variety of prominent crusts in the top metre of the snowpack. A storm last weekend brought anywhere from 30-60 cm of snow to the region. The latest reports indicate the wind has since redistributed all that new snow and created widespread wind effect in open terrain. In the short term, you can still expect to find lingering wind slabs in the lee of terrain features.
Image: from a MIN post Nov 30 in the Bijoux area depicting a cross section of the top metre of the snowpack.
Avalanches
There have only been a few reports of recent avalanche activity. The ones we have received have been limited to storm or wind slab avalanches that happened either during or just after the storm last weekend.
Future
Our new North Rockies field team is due to be up and running mid-December. Expect to see forecasts for the North Rockies shortly after their start up. Forecasts will be issued 3 days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, it looks like we may see the next snowfall by midweek. The image below depicts what the Canadian Global weather model is predicting for Tuesday afternoon. The green blob you see sitting over the North Rockies indicates about 5-10 cm of new snow over a 12 hour period. The snowy period is expected to last into Wednesday. It’s a bit far out to make an accurate prediction, but it is something at least!
Image: Canadian Global weather model depicting the snowfall forecast to start Dec 3, 2019
Quite often what happens during a prolonged cold and clear period, sugary facets or feathery surface hoar get an opportunity to develop on the surface of the snow. Once they get buried (as in Tuesday night or Wednesday if the forecast holds true), they have the potential to become a weak sliding layer. So once the snow starts to fly again, it will be important to adopt a conservative approach to selecting terrain. Start out in simple terrain and work your way into challenging or complex terrain only if the conditions allow for it.
In the meantime, if you are getting out there, keep those MIN posts coming.