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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 25th, 2014–Jan 26th, 2014

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.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Sea To Sky.

Check out the latest blog post on deep persistent slab problems.For those of you planing glacier travel over the weekend, be aware that crevasses are poorly bridged. Check out the recent MCR post from Decker Mtn.

Confidence

Fair - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain

Weather Forecast

Overnight and Sunday: Continued warm air at higher elevations. Mostly sunny with freezing level up to about 2700 metres. Light Northwest winds becoming Northeast in the late afternoon.Monday: Continued mostly sunny with valley cloud. Freezing levels moving down to about 2300 metres as the inversion slowly breaks down in the alpine. Light Southeast winds.Tuesday: Temperature inversion breaks down as cloud and light precipitation move in from the South. Freezing level at about 1000 metres.

Avalanche Summary

Loose wet avalanches were reported up to size 2.0 from steep East aspects in the AM and from steep West aspects in the PM.

Snowpack Summary

The surface snow is likely undergoing a melt-freeze cycle on all but high elevation shady aspects. The record low snowpack is generally well settled and strong; however, facets with an associated laminated crust still lurk near the base. Recent snowpack tests on a SSW facing treeline slope gave hard but sudden results on a crust laminated with facets down 118cm. Below that, facets and depth hoar were found down to the ground. Although warm temperatures tend to promote settlement and strengthening over time, the initial strain could easily reawaken these deep persistent slabs.

Problems

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.

Deep Persistent Slabs

Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.