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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 14th, 2024–Mar 15th, 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

South Coast Inland, Birkenhead, Duffey, South Chilcotin, Stein, Taseko.

⚠️ Avoid all avalanche terrain ⚠️

Widespread natural avalanches continue.

Persistent slab activity is expected to increase, as temperatures remain above mountain top for several days

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Large, naturally triggered persistent slab activity continued on Wednesday with up to size 3 avalanches observed in the past 2 days. Most have been naturally triggered from warming and sun, although some were remote-triggered from 150 to 300 m away indicating a very weak snowpack.

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

Snowpack Summary

Expect to find moist or wet snow at all elevations except the highest north facing terrain. 40 to 80 cm of snow from the past week is rapidly settling over a variety of layers including surface hoar in isolated shady areas.

A weak layer composed of weak faceted grains on a crust is now buried 80 to 150 cm deep. This layer remains sensitive to both human and natural triggers and continues to produce large, destructive avalanches.

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

Weather Summary

Thursday Night

Mostly clear. 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Freezing levels remain above 3000 m overnight.

Friday

Sunny. 30 km/h north wind. Treeline temperature +6 °C with freezing level climbing to 3300 m.

Saturday

Sunny. 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +8 °C with freezing level steady at 3300 m.

Sunday

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

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid avalanche terrain during periods of strong sun.
  • Cornice failure may trigger large avalanches.
  • Avoid the runout zones of avalanche paths. Very large avalanches have been running full path.
  • 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.