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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 15th, 2024–Mar 16th, 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 and human triggered avalanches likely.
Alpine
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.
Below Treeline
Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Regions

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

⚠️ Avoid all avalanche terrain including overhead hazard ⚠️

Very large natural avalanches will continue as temperatures remain high.

Avalanches may run to valley bottom.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Widespread natural activity was observed on Thursday, with loose and slab avalanches produced up to size 4.5. Avalanches varied from failing within the recent storm storm to a variety of buried weak layers.

While most have been naturally triggered, some recent avalanches were remote-triggered indicating a very weak snowpack.

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

Snowpack Summary

Expect to find moist or wet snow at all elevations. 40-80 cm of snow from the past week is rapidly settling over a variety of layers including surface hoar in isolated shady areas, buried 60-100 cm deep.

A layer of weak facets on a crust is buried 100-200 cm deep. These weak layers show sensitivity to both human and natural triggers and continue to produce large, destructive avalanches.

The warm temperatures are expected to increase reactivity of all buried weak layers, producing large natural avalanches.

Weather Summary

Friday Night

Sunny. 10 km/h easterly wind. Freezing level remains above 3000 m overnight.

Saturday

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

Sunday

Sunny. 30 km/h southerly ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +8 °C with freezing level holding at 3300 m.

Monday

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

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.
  • The likelihood of deep persistent slab avalanches will increase with each day of warm weather.

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.