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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 16th, 2024–Mar 17th, 2024

Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Regions

Northwest Coastal, Boundary, Kitimat, Nass, Rupert, Seven Sisters, Shames, Stewart, Howson, Ningunsaw, Ningunsaw, Ningunsaw.

Avoid all avalanche terrain.

Unseasonable warm weather will likely result in a widespread natural avalanche cycle.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Numerous very large persistent slab avalanches continued to fail naturally throughout the region on Friday, some failing due to cornice falls on to the slopes below. Pinwheeling and loose wet activity also occurred.

We expect widespread, large, natural avalanches to continue with forecasted warm temperatures.

Snowpack Summary

Expect to find moist or wet surface snow.

15 to 20 cm of wet snow (or rain at lower elevations) was redistributed by southerly winds. This overlies the settled 40 to 80 cm of storm snow.

Several persistent weak layers are buried between 90 and 180 cm deep, including hard crusts with overlying weak facets and surface hoar. These weak layers have produced avalanche activity over the last week.

Weather Summary

Saturday Night

Mostly clear. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperatures around +4 °C. Freezing level 2500 m.

Sunday

Increasing clouds. 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperatures around +4 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.

Monday

Partly cloudy, chance of flurries in the morning. 10 to 20 km/h south ridgetop winds. Treeline temperatures around +5 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.

Tuesday

Partly cloudy. 10 km/h southeast ridgetop winds. Treeline temperatures around +5 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.

For more details, see the Mountain Weather Forecast.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain as temperatures increase.
  • Cornice failure may trigger large avalanches.
  • Very large and destructive avalanches could reach valley bottom.
  • A moist or wet snow surface, pinwheeling and natural avalanches are all indicators of a weakening snowpack.

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.