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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 29th, 2024–Jan 30th, 2024

Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

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

The upper snowpack has been saturated and weakened by rain. Avoid high-consequence avalanche terrain while above-freezing temperatures continue.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Numerous wet slab, wet loose, and storm slab avalanches were naturally or explosive-triggered on Sunday, anywhere from size 1 to 3.

Snowpack Summary

Rainfall and warm temperatures have saturated and weakened the upper snowpack. At treeline and below the snowpack is largely isothermal.

The mid and lower snowpack consists of various old crusts and is generally well-settled and well-bonded.

Weather Summary

Monday Night

Cloudy with 30 to 40 mm of rain or wet snow, south alpine winds 50 to 80 km/h, freezing levels around 2100 m.

Tuesday

Cloudy with trace amounts of rain or wet snow, south alpine winds 20 to 40 km/h, freezing levels around 2100 m.

Wednesday

Cloudy with 5 to 15 mm of rain or wet snow, southeast alpine winds 30 to 60 km/h, freezing levels around 2100 m.

Thursday

Cloudy with 0 to 5 mm of rain or snow, southeast alpine winds 20 to 40 km/h, freezing levels around 1600 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Back off slopes as the surface becomes moist or wet with rising temperatures.
  • The more the snow feels like a slurpy, the more likely loose wet avalanches will become.
  • Conservative terrain selection is critical, choose only well supported, low consequence lines.

Problems

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.

Wet Slabs

Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.