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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 8th, 2021–Mar 11th, 2021

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, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Waterton Lakes.

It sure feels like spring out there, and south facing slopes are heating up quickly in the morning which can lead to hazard increasing quickly. The persistent slab could still be triggered by people, so dig down often to evaluate the snowpack.

Weather Forecast

The transition to spring is real: Generally a mix of sun and cloud with potential for convective flurries in the afternoon for the forecast period with freezing levels at valley bottom at night, and rising to 1300-1600m during the day. Winds will generally be light form the southwest except Tuesday night where they could increase to 50km/h.

Snowpack Summary

A crust exists on the surface to ridgetop on solar aspects and at low elevations. This tops 20-50cm dense settled snow on top of the February 14 facet layer which is above a melt freeze crust at treeline and below. The remainder of the midpack is made up of dense facets and decomposing crusts, with early season ice crusts forming the base.

Avalanche Summary

Warm temperatures last weekend triggered several persistent slab avalanches failing on the February 14 facet layer. These were predominately in the 1800-2000m range on south through east aspects, though one was observed well below treeline in a southeast facing gully feature. A few loose wet avalanches to size 2 were also seen.

Confidence

The weather pattern is stable

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.