Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 24th, 2024–Feb 25th, 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 avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Regions

North Columbia, South Columbia, Esplanade, Jordan, North Selkirk, West Purcell, Badshot-Battle, Central Selkirk, Goat, Gold, Retallack, Whatshan.

Avoid all avalanche terrain.

Lots of snow and wind is overloading buried weak layers. Natural and human-triggered avalanches are likely.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Significant avalanche activity is expected to have occurred on Saturday but no new reports have come in at the time of publishing.

On Friday several small and large (size 2) storm and persistent slab avalanches were rider-triggered at treeline and above. Sometimes remotely from up to 100 m away.

On Thursday several small persistent slab avalanches were triggered by riders failing on the crust layer from early February.

Snowpack Summary

20 to 30 cm of recent snow with a lot more on the way sits on a drought layer of sun crust, weak sugary facets, surface hoar, and or lower elevation crust.

Another layer of surface hoar is down around 30 to 60 cm in sheltered areas.

The widespread crust buried in early February is down 50 to 75 cm and has sugary facets on top. In most places, this crust is widespread up to 2400 m.

The base of the snowpack is still loose and faceted in shallow rocky alpine areas.

Weather Summary

Saturday Night

Cloudy with 15 to 25 cm of snow. 35 to 45 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Sunday

Cloudy with 15 to 30 cm of snow. 45 to 55 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Monday

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow. 15 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.

Tuesday

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -15 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

Avoid all avalanche terrain during periods of heavy snowfall.
Only the most simple non-avalanche terrain free of overhead hazard is appropriate at this time.
Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, avalanches may run surprisingly far.

Problems

Storm Slabs

Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

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.