Lawinenlagebericht

Maritime

Valdez Avalanche Center
Auf der Karte ansehen

Lawinengefahr

Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
Open full map
Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 2 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

The avalanche hazard is Moderate above 1500 feet and low below.   Light snowfall accumulations will allow for fresh wind slabs to develop in specific areas.  Expect human triggered avalanches to be possible less than 1 foot in depth where recently wind loaded snow exists. Natural avalanches are unlikely.

Avalanche forecasts are produced Wednesday-Sunday.  The next avalanche bulletin will be issued on 3/13.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alle Höhenlagen
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–2

    Light snowfall that occurred yesterday is expected to continue today with 1-2" of new snowfall expected in the next 24 hours.  4 inches of snow was recorded at the Nicks snotel at 4300' over the last 24 hours.  New snow is being deposited on a variety of very hard wind affected surfaces capped by surface hoar in some locations.  Wherever this Surface hoar is present expect to find touchy shallow wind slabs in places where the new snow has been redistributed into deeper pockets by wind.

    New snowfall amounts are not yet sufficient to form storm slabs that are a concern.  Instabilities will be concentrated to areas where the wind has created deeper/ more cohesive pockets of snow. Wind directions shifted from North to South overnight so expect these wind loaded areas to exist on a variety of aspects less than one foot in depth.  Pay attention to new snowfall amounts, wind loading patterns and how well new snow is bonding with the underlying hard snow surfaces.  Hand pits and test slopes will be good assesment tools for today and moving forward in the near term.

Avalanche Discussion

Light snowfall that was observed yesterday is expected to continue through the short to medium term.  New snowfall amounts are not yet sufficient to form a storm slab problem in our forecast area, although this will change over the next few days as continued light snowfall will slowly accumulate.  Instabilities today are expected to be confined to specific locations where the new snow has been loaded into deeper pockets.  In these areas expect for the new snow to be more cohesive (slabby) and be possible to trigger less than one foot in depth on slopes steeper than 35°.

On 3/7 surface hoar was observed on the north side of Thompson Pass.  This may become a layer of concern in areas where it wasn't destroyed by the brief outflow the night of 3/7.  Tracking the distribution and sensitivity of this layer will be important this week as more small storms roll in.  Previous strong wind at the beginning of the month created very hard snow surfaces ranging from smooth wind board to sandstone like sastrugi.  This hard snow has capped our snowpack for the time being, and with limited stress on the current snowpack, instabilities are expected to be limited to the interface with this hard snow and above.

Glide cracks exist in isolated areas and will be a hazard throughout the season until they fail.  Avoid exposure to glide cracks.

Valdez season snowfall: 249  inches

Valdez March snowfall: 1 inches

Valdez height of snowpack: 69 inches

Thompson Pass season snowfall: 596 inches as of 3/1

46 mile height of snowpack: 72 inches

 

Abgedeckte Regionen