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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 20th, 2023–Apr 21st, 2023

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

Regions

Glacier.

Spring is in the air. Expect fast travel on a crust in the morning, and good skiing on high due North aspects.

Watch for increased avalanche activity as the sun hits steep slopes, and the temps warm through the day.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

On Thursday, sun and warm temps triggered a cycle of loose wet avalanches, up to size 2.5, in steep solar terrain.

On Tuesday a field team was able to easily trigger several small slab avalanches at the interface of Sunday's storm.

Snowpack Summary

Below treeline, the snowpack is a series of supportive crusts, which soften with daytime warming.

At treeline and in the alpine, due N aspects still hold dry snow. On solar aspects a breakable surface crust overlies a series of buried crusts, which may provide a failure plane for slab avalanches as temps rise.

The Nov 17 basal weakness can still be found in many locations 20-40cm off the ground.

Weather Summary

Increasingly unsettled weather and warming temps in to the weekend, as a pacific low approaches.

Tonight: Alpine low -6°C, light S ridge winds, Freezing level (FZL) 1200m

Friday: Sunny periods, High -1°C, FZL 2000m, light W winds.

Sat: Flurries (5cm), Low -5 °C, High -2 °C, FZL 2000m, Light SW wind.

Sun: Flurries (5-10cm), Low -3 °C, High 0 °C.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Rocks will heat up with daytime warming and may become trigger points for loose wet avalanches
  • The more the snowpack warms-up and weakens, the more conservative you`ll want to be with your terrain selection.
  • Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and cliffs where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.

Problems

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.

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.