Dashboard Regions Weather Stations Radar Alerts Glossary
Contact About
Log In

Register for an account and never miss a forecast again!

Register

Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 23rd, 2024–Mar 24th, 2024

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

Regions

Purcells, Dogtooth, East Purcell, West Purcell.

Conditions may be improving, but be mindful of the recent reports of large persistent slab avalanches.

Avoid steep or convex terrain features with a shallow or thin-to-thick snowpack.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

A helicopter landing on a slope remotely triggered several size 2 persistent slab avalanches on a north aspect in the alpine south of Golden on Friday. The avalanches failed on the crust which was down 80 to 110 cm in that location.

A second heli remote triggered size 2 persistent slab avalanche was reported at another operation on a north facing slope at treeline. The crust was down around 60 cm in that location.

Snowpack Summary

0 to 10 cm of recent snow overlies predominantly crusty surfaces.

A widespread crust with sugary facets above is down 40 to 110 cm. Steep or convex terrain features with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack at treeline and above are the most likely places to trigger this layer. However, when a thick surface crust is present, human triggering this layer is unlikely.

The bottom of the snowpack is generally weak and faceted, with the potential to produce very large avalanches. The most likely areas to trigger this deeply buried weak layer are steep, rocky areas in the alpine with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack.

Weather Summary

Saturday night

Cloudy with isolated flurries, 0 to 5 cm. 10 to 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C. Freezing level valley bottom.

Sunday

Mostly sunny. 10 to 20 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C. Freezing level 1400 m.

Monday

Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1600 m.

Tuesday

Mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.

Check out the Mountain Weather Forecast for additional weather information.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid steep, rocky, and wind effected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
  • When a thick, melt-freeze surface crust is present, avalanche activity is unlikely.
  • Conditions may have improved, but be mindful that deep instabilities are still present.
  • Cornice failure may trigger 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.