Avalanche forecast

Douglas Island

Coastal Alaska Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Mon
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 8 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Little change overnight from yesterday leaves the hazard at moderate for now.  Our main issue is still a persistant slab that is difficult to trigger. Continue to use good route finding, decision making, and ski/ride/sled one at a time. Remember that likely trigger points are convex rolls, shallow spots near rocks or trees,  and be cautious of large unbroken slopes where the potential for larger avalalanches exist. 

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3

    Stability tests performed around Douglas continue to show a persistant slab problem that is difficult to initiate but is a large cohesive slab when failure occurs.  It is important to keep this in mind when choosing what type of terrain to travel and descend on.  As we move back into more precipitation late tonight and into tomorrow we can anticipate adding storm slab and wind slab to the avalanche problems moving forward.

Avalanche Discussion

Persistent slab is still our main concern today.  While stubborn to trigger at the moment and somewhat spatially variable,  the faceted layers of snow near the bottom of our snowpack have the potential to cause large avalanches. Several great observations on the CAAC website from this week can be a great resource for people seeking more information about the location and potential reactivity of this weak layer. With snow and wind returning to the area Monday expect avalanche hazard to increase. Fresh storm and wind slabs this week will further stress our buried persistent slab problem. Warming temperatures throughout the week will also play a factor in increasing avalanche hazard as well. Storm skiing/riding this coming week will require extremely careful descision making and route finding to limit exposure to increasing avalanche hazard.     

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