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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 6th, 2024–Mar 7th, 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

South Okanagan, Shuswap, North Okanagan.

Evaluate terrain carefully. Steep open slopes may have a buried weak layer capable of producing large avalanches.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Reports from this region have been limited. A size 1 human-triggered wind slab was reported on an east aspect on Monday, and an explosive-triggered size 1.5 storm slab occurred on Saturday. However, neighboring regions have reported numerous large to very large natural and human-triggered persistent slab avalanches. Although not as large or likely in this region, triggering persistent slabs is still a concern.

Snowpack Summary

Surface conditions include a dusting of soft snow, sun crust on south aspects, and wind-affected snow in the alpine.

A widespread crust that formed in early February is buried roughly 40 to 80 cm deep, possibly with a weak layer of facets above it. In neighbouring regions, this layer has produced many large and concerning avalanches over the past week.

The snowpack below this crust is strong and bonded.

Weather Summary

Wednesday Night

Clear skies. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -12 °C.

Thursday

Sunny. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Friday

Mostly cloudy with 1 to 2 cm of snow. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.

Saturday

Mostly cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 50 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Uncertainty is best managed through conservative terrain choices at this time.
  • Choose slopes that are well supported and have limited consequence.
  • Remote triggering is a concern, watch out for adjacent and overhead slopes.
  • Persistent slabs have potential to pull back to lower angle terrain.

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.