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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 15th, 2024–Mar 16th, 2024

Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Regions

Sea To Sky, Brandywine, Garibaldi, Homathko, Spearhead, Tantalus, Sky Pilot.

⚠️ Avoid all avalanche terrain including overhead hazard ⚠️

Very large natural avalanches will continue as temperatures remain high.

Avalanches may run to valley bottom.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Widespread natural activity was observed on Thursday, with loose and slab avalanches produced up to size 4. Avalanches varied from failing within the recent storm storm to buried weak layers.

A notable size 3 natural slab avalanche was reported on the MIN on Wednesday, this ran on the basal facets near the ground. Photo below.

Continued persistent slab activity is expected, as well as widespread loose wet avalanches and cornice failures as warming persists.

Snowpack Summary

Expect to find moist or wet snow at all elevations. Over 100 cm of snow from the past week is rapidly settling. This storm snow may trigger as wet loose or slab avalanches.

A weak layer of facets on a crust is buried 150 to 250 cm deep and remains sensitive to both human and natural triggers producing frequent large avalanches.

The warm temperatures are expected to increase the reactivity of all buried weak layers, producing large natural avalanches.

Weather Summary

Friday Night

Clear skies. 15 km/h north wind. Freezing level remains around 3300 m overnight.

Saturday

Sunny. 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +9 °C with freezing level above 3300 m.

Sunday

Sunny. 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +8 °C with freezing level sustained at 3300 m.

Monday

Sunny. 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +8 °C with freezing level sustained at 3300 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, large avalanches may reach the end of run out zones.
  • Cornice failure may trigger large avalanches.
  • The likelihood of deep persistent slab avalanches will increase with each day of warm weather.

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.