Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Glacier.
March showers bring flurries to the High Country.
Convective bursts of snowfall can drop 5-10cm of fluff to localized areas in a hurry. They may also arrive with gusty winds, elevating danger in your specific zone.
Weather and the snowpack change quickly in the Spring, so be fluid with plans and have a back-up destination.
Confidence
Moderate
Snowpack Summary
Convective squalls have incrementally delivered up to 50cm of new snow in the last week. Localized wind redistribution has been isolated to higher alpine features. The March 5th interface, down 50-100cm, consists of a crust &/or surface hoar (3-10mm, largest in the alpine).
Shaded, wind-sheltered areas above 1600m hold loose, dry snow (and great skiing!).
Two persistent weak layers (PWL) of heavily facetted snow from cold temps in Jan/Feb are now buried 120-160cm deep.
Weather Summary
Increasing cloud cover Wed PM and flurries for the next few days.
Tonight Clearing. Alpine low -10°C. Ridge wind SW 25km/hr. Freezing Level (FZL) valley bottom.
Wed Sun to cloud, flurries, trace snow. Alpine high -6°C. Wind SW 20-40km/h. FZL 1400m.
Thurs Cloudy, scattered flurries, 5cm. Alpine high -6°C. Wind SW 20-45km/h. FZL 1500m.
Fri Flurries. 10cm. Alpine high -5°C. Ridge winds 15-50km/h. FZL 1200m.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Loose avalanches may step down to deeper layers, resulting in larger avalanches.
- Even brief periods of direct sun could produce natural avalanches.
Avalanche Problems
Persistent Slabs
A persistent weak layer (PWL), buried March 5th, is now down 50-100cm in the snowpack. Depending on aspect and elevation, this layer may be suncrust, facets and/or surface hoar. There's potential for step-down avalanches to this layer if dry/loose sluffs gather enough mass to overload it.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 2 - 3.5