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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 17th, 2023–Mar 18th, 2023

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, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Glacier.

Great skiing can still be found on shaded slopes.

Expect a surface crust on solar aspects in the morning, and scale back your exposure as this switches from crusty to moist/wet in the afternoon.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

On Friday, we observed a few loose snow avalanches on steep solar aspects in the Highway corridor, up to size 2.5.

There was a widespread cycle of avalanche activity on steep solar aspects on Thursday. These were primarily loose snow avalanches in the size 1-2 range, with a few larger (size 3) avalanches in the steep paths off of Mt. Tupper. There was also skier triggered size 1.5 slab avalanche reported in 8812 bowl. All activity was suspected to be failing on the March 11th crust.

Field teams were able to ski cut size 1-1.5 slabs on small steep unsupported solar features (buried crust) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Snowpack Summary

Up to 40cm of recent snow is settling over a variety of old surfaces (sun crust, surface hoar and soft facetted snow). This storm snow will take longer to bond where it sits on a crust/surface hoar combo.

Below this is a generally strong snowpack, however the basal weakness of rounding facets/decomposing crust persists near the ground and should factor in to your terrain use decisions.

Weather Summary

High pressure will maintain stable weather through the weekend.

Tonight: Clear periods. Alpine low -6°C. Light Southwest ridgetop winds.

Saturday: Mix of sun and cloud. Alpine High -5°C, freezing level (FZL) 1500m. Light S ridgetop winds.

Sunday: Sunny periods. Low -7°C, High -2°C, FZL 1800m. Light SE winds.

Monday: Mainly cloudy. Low -5°C, High -1°C, FZL 1800m. Light wind.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid sun exposed slopes, especially if snow surface is moist or wet.
  • As surface loses cohesion due to melting, loose wet avalanches become common in steeper terrain.

Problems

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.

Storm Slabs

Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.