Avalanche forecast

Bridgeport Avalanche Center

Bridgeport Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 3 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

It will remain possible to trigger a large avalanche at the bottom of the pack today. The wind-packed hard snow at the surface will not provide clues of the weak snow that remains at the bottom. This avalanche problem is tricky to navigate, the best way to avoid it is with conservative terrain choices and route selections.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2.5

    Weak sugary snow remains a problem at the bottom of the pack.  We have been monitoring this snow for a while now and have noticed that the snow has been slowly gaining strength. The storm that came through last week put a load on these weak snow grains and caused a natural avalanche cycle. Some of these slides had huge piles of debris highlighting that even a small slab can entrain a ton of snow, especially when the slide happens at the bottom of the pack. Avalanche crowns that break halfway down the slope lead to a greater amount of uncertainty and leave us in a spooky moderate scenario. In many places, this snow could be insulated below 3 feet or more of snow and also near the surface in more shallow and rocky terrain. Our snow pack overall is still quite shallow and there is a high degree of spatial variability in the distribution of the problem. 

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2.5

    The wind that came through this week left no snow grain untouched. Wind slab was felt on all aspects in and above treeline terrain around Leavitt Lake on Thursday. This snow is knife-hard to 1 finger hard in spots. If this wind slab broke and stepped down into the persistent slab at the bottom of the pack, an avalanche of that size would likely be very damaging. Isolated pockets of complex terrain such as convexities, unsupported slopes, and shallow north-facing steep start zones will be suspect today. 

Avalanche Discussion

Yesterday was the calm after the storm and today the weather begins to pull in ahead of a multi-day weather event that starts tonight. The snow at the surface across our forecast area is, for the most part, made up of a hard wind slab from the wind event earlier this week. Looking across the terrain yesterday we saw evidence of a natural cycle that went this week with mid-slope fracture lines and breaks in the snow in places that would be hard to predict. This speaks to the persistent slab problem that has been firmly rooted in our forecasts for weeks. The snow grains are healing but the problem persists. While not a technical term, this spooky moderate problem originates in situations like this. Stomping around in the hard wind packed snow on the surface doesn't tell us much about the weak snow at the base. Our best look is to stay vigilant in our terrain selection and give this problem more time to heal. 

Regions covered