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

Regions

South Coast Inland, Birkenhead, Duffey, South Chilcotin, Stein, Taseko.

⚠️ Continue to avoid avalanche terrain and exposure to any overhead hazard⚠️

Large and destructive natural avalanches continue.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Natural activity continued on Friday, with avalanches observed up to size 3.5 triggered by warming and sun. Avalanches occurred on all aspects but were most widespread on sun affected slopes.

Continued persistent slab activity is expected, as well as widespread loose wet avalanches and cornice failures as warming persists.

Snowpack Summary

The upper snowpack is wet from warm temperatures and strong sunshine on south facing features at all elevations. Dry snow can still be found on north facing slopes in the alpine. 60-100 cm of snow from the past week is rapidly settling with these warm temperatures. This snow is producing wet loose and slab avalanches.

A weak layer of facets and crust is buried 100-2-0 cm deep. Large naturally triggered avalanches have been observed on this layer within the last 2 days.

Weather Summary

Saturday Night

Clear skies. 20-40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Freezing level remains above 3000 m overnight.

Sunday

Sunny. 10-20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +8 °C with freezing level steady at 3300 m.

Monday

Sunny. 10 km/h southerly ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +6 °C with freezing levels remaining above 3000 m.

Tuesday

Sunny. 20-40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +5 °C with freezing levels falling to 2500 m in the afternoon.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, avalanches may run surprisingly far.
  • Cornice failure may trigger large avalanches.
  • Avoid the runout zones of avalanche paths. Very large avalanches have been running full path.

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.