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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 1st, 2025–Mar 2nd, 2025

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

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

Cooler temps should throw some milk at the spicy persistent slab problem but the consequences of getting burnt by buried weak layers is still high.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Very large, scary persistent slab avalanche activity has been reported daily throughout the week. On Thursday, several remotely triggered avalanches were reported size 2.5-3 (very large!) at alpine and treeline elevations. Many of these avalanches were triggered by riders from hundreds of meters away. Slabs have been failing on a weak layer 50 to 100 cm deep.

Snowpack Summary

A widespread surface crust exists on most aspects and elevations.

60 to 80 cm of well-settled snow sits over a weak layer of facets and surface hoar buried in mid February. As of Friday, snowpack tests in the Spearhead zone indicate this layer may finally be starting to gain strength.

Another weak layer, from late January, is buried 80 to 120 cm deep. This may present as a crust on sunny slopes, sugary facets in most places, and surface hoar in sheltered spots. Large natural, remote and human-triggered avalanches have been reported on this layer this week.

For more details, check out Zenith's snowpack update from Friday.

Weather Summary

Saturday night

Partly cloudy. 20 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level dropping to 1400 m.

Sunday

Cloudy with a trace of snow. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0°C. Freezing level 1700 m.

Monday

Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0°C. Freezing level 1600 m.

Tuesday

Sunny. 20 to 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level 1500 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.
  • Keep in mind that human triggering may persist as natural avalanches taper off.
  • Uncertainty is best managed through conservative terrain choices.

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.