Avalanche forecast

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Haines Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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Out of date — this forecast expired 3 years ago.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

Lower-density snow beneth high-density snow could be preserved and potentially more touchy on leeward SE aspects. Maintain safe travel protocols by moving one at a time through steep terrain while selecting slopes with smooth runouts free of surface obstacles. 

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    6-8" of soft, cold snow fell before warm inverted air created higher-density snow overlying the lower-density snow.  This up-side down, top- heavy snowpack is an unstable configuration making human triggered avalanches possible. As you travel, keep an eye out for signs of cracking, hollowness, and cohesive surface snow.  Avoid terrian traps and overhead exposure, travel one at a time through complex terrain while maintaining eyes on. 

Avalanche Discussion

It's yet again a good post-storm time to reset your mindset and look at the snow with new eyes. Warmer temperatures yesterday will drive settlement but also cause more stress on the low-density layer underneath the new storm slab.  Inverted warmer temperatures created a rain crust  and other melt freeze layers near the surface.  

Deeper down, a few melt-freeze layers are present throughout the snowpack at all elevations and aspects. These layers have mostly been found to be healing but could fail and produce an unlikely though larger avalanche. Our overall warmer and wetter temperature regime this season has helped slow the development of persistent weak layers (PWL's) in the snowpack. However at higher elevations and further inland these grain types can exist, and will require continued assessment.

The people you go out with, the way you communicate, and the way you practice risk reduction as a team throughout the day is equally important as the conditions.

Help us gather information about weather, snowpack, and avalanche activity by reading and submitting field observations. Useful observations can be anonymous and include: 

  • Natural or human-triggered avalanche activity
  • Signs of instability: Cracking, collapsing, or whumphing
  • Red Flag Weather: Precipitation, wind loading, warming temperatures and rain-on-snow
  • Surface hoar growth, snow depth, persistent weak layers, etc
  • Snow stability tests, or pit result and location, elevation, aspect, etc 

Were you caught, carried, injured or buried in a slide? We are all human and can benefit from lessons learned, please report incidents to Haines Avalanche Center staff confidentially.

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