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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 3rd, 2025–Mar 4th, 2025

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

Sea To Sky, Brandywine, Garibaldi, Homathko, Spearhead, Tantalus.

A hard crust on the snow surface will reduce the likelihood of triggering buried weak layers, but the consequences of an avalanche on these layers remain high.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Last week, a flurry of very large, scary persistent slab avalanche activity was reported at alpine and treeline elevations. Naturals and remotely triggered slabs size 2 to 3 showed wide propagation, with crowns 50 to 100+ cm deep. These avalanches are becoming less likely, but consequences of triggering one remain high.

Snowpack Summary

A dusting of new snow sits over a widespread surface crust.

60 to 80 cm of well-settled snow sits over a weak layer of facets and surface hoar buried in mid February. Recent snowpack tests indicate this layer may finally be starting to gain strength.

Another weak layer, from late January, is buried 80 to 120 cm deep. This may present as a crust on sunny slopes, sugary facets in most places, and surface hoar in sheltered spots. Large natural, remote and human-triggered avalanches were reported on this layer last week.

For more details, check out Zenith's snowpack update from Friday.

Weather Summary

Monday night

Cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2°C. Freezing level 1200 m.

Tuesday

Mostly cloudy with 1 to 5 cm of new snow. 30 to 50 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level 1300 m.

Wednesday

5 to 10 cm of snow overnight then clearing. 10 to 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level 1400 m.

Thursday

Sunny. 20 to 30 km/h northeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0°C. Freezing level 1600 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.
  • A hard crust on the snow surface will help strengthen the snowpack, but may cause tough travel conditions.
  • Uncertainty is best managed through conservative terrain choices.

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.