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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 15th, 2025–Mar 16th, 2025

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

Regions

Glacier.

With new snow and strong winds forecasted to refresh the storm slab problem, the hazard remains elevated.

Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding and conservative decision making is essential until the new storm snow settles.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

On Saturday, a skier triggered a size 1.5 storm slab in the start zone of Frequent Flyer where the debris almost hit the skin track.

Thurs' storm triggered a few natural avalanches in the hwy corridor, up to sz 2.5. Avalanche control Thursday produced widespread results, triggering avalanches up to sz 3.0.

Before Thursdays snowfall, large avalanche debris and fracture lines could be seen in most avalanche paths from last weekends storm which produced up to sz 4 avalanches.

Snowpack Summary

Up to 20cm of new snow fell Thursday, with strong SW winds. This covers up to 80cm that fell last weekend, accompanied by periods of extreme SW winds. This slab is settling and sits on old breakable crust &/or surface hoar (3-10mm, largest in the alpine).

Two persistent weak layers (PWL) in the heavily facetted snow from cold temps in Jan/Feb are now buried well over a meter. Large triggers such as storm slab avalanches in motion may step-down to these layer.

Weather Summary

Widespread flurries through the weekend with mixed sun & cloud and cool temps into Mon/Tues.

Tonight 5cm. Alpine high -8°C. SW wind 25-45km/hr. FZL 900m.

Sun Trace precip. Alpine high -7°C. West wind 15-30km/hr. FZL 1300m.

Mon 4cm. Low -12°C, High -9 °C. West wind 25-35km/hr. FZL 1200m.

Tues Mix of Sun/Cloud, isolated flurries. Low -14°C, High -11 °C. West wind 20km/hr. FZL 800m.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
  • Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.

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.