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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 21st, 2024–Mar 22nd, 2024

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

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

Cool temperatures decrease hazard. If a thick crust is present, large slab avalanches are unlikely.

Back off if you find moist or wet surface snow; large slab avalanches remain triggerable.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

On Wednesday, several large persistent and wet avalanches were reported, up to size 3. These avalanches are the tail end of a widespread, large natural avalanche cycle.

While temperatures are now cooling, large avalanches remain possible where hard surface crust does not exist.

Snowpack Summary

Expect to find 5 to 10 cm of snow overlying a thick melt-freeze crust at higher elevations. This crust is expected to be at the surface below 1500 m.

Two layers of surface hoar and sun crust can be found in the top meter of the snowpack.

A widespread crust formed in early February is buried about 80 to 150 cm deep. This crust has a layer of facets above it, producing the previous large, natural avalanche cycle.

Weather Summary

Thursday Night

Partly cloudy. 15 km/h west ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature around -6 °C. Freezing level drops to surface.

Friday

Sunny. 10 km/h west ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature around -3 °C.

Spring diurnal cycle begins, freezing levels dropping to surface overnight and rising to about 1500 m during the day.

Saturday

Cloudy. 10 km/h northeast ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature around -3 °C. Spring diurnal continues.

Sunday

Partly cloudy. 10 km/h northeast ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature around -4 °C.

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.
  • Minimize exposure to steep, sun exposed slopes, especially when the solar radiation is strong.
  • When a thick, melt-freeze surface crust is present, avalanche activity is unlikely.

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.