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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 29th, 2025–Mar 30th, 2025

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Regions

Purcells, Dogtooth, East Purcell, West Purcell.

Melt-freeze crusts vary in thickness and supportiveness and may break down throughout the day.

Continually assess the surface snow and back off steep slopes where the surface is moist.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Dry and wet loose avalanche activity has been observed throughout the region, depending on elevation.

A widespread, large, destructive avalanche cycle occurred across the region, involving weak layers buried deep in the snowpack

Read the Forecaster Blog for an opportunity to reflect on this week's widespread avalanche activity.

Snowpack Summary

Recent snow buries a surface crust that varies in thickness and supportiveness.

Refrozen and moist snow can be found in the upper snowpack, depending on elevation.

Below this, weak layers of facets and crusts remain a concern for human-triggering where a supportive melt-freeze crust has not yet formed or breaks down during the day with rising freezing levels and sun.

Weather Summary

Saturday Night

Mainly clear skies. 5 to 10 km/h southeast wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Sunday

Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 15 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -3 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.

Monday

Partly cloudy, isolated flurries, 3 to 5 cm. 15 to 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures -3 °C. Freezing levels 1800 m.

Tuesday

Cloudy, isolated flurries 4 to 5 cm. 10 to 20 km/h ridgetop wind. Treeline temperatures 0 °C. Freezing levels 2000 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avalanche danger will increase as the surface crust breaks down.
  • Loose avalanches may step down to deeper layers, resulting in larger avalanches.
  • Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.