Dashboard Regions Weather Stations Radar Alerts Glossary
Contact About
Log In

Register for an account and never miss a forecast again!

Register

Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 22nd, 2023–Apr 23rd, 2023

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

Regions

Glacier.

A spring storm will bring snow to higher elevations and rain to lower elevations.

If you decide to trudge through the rain and sloppy snow to reach white-out conditions in the alpine, evaluate changing conditions as you gain elevation or change aspects.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Expect avalanche activity to increase on Sunday as lower elevations get saturated by rain and higher elevations receive 10-15cm of snow and moderate winds.

No new avalanches were observed or reported for the last two days.

Snowpack Summary

Below treeline, the snowpack is a series of supportive crusts, which break down with daytime warming.

At treeline and in the alpine, North aspects still hold dry snow. On solar aspects, a breakable crust overlies a series of buried crusts, which may provide a failure plane for slab avalanches as temps rise.

The Nov 17 basal weakness can still be found in many locations 20-40cm thick, above the ground.

Weather Summary

A storm system slides into the region Saturday evening bringing 10-15cm of snow at higher elevations and rain below tree line. Winds will be 20-40km/hr from the SW with a freezing level of 2000m.

Another 5cm on Monday with light winds.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Storm slab size and sensitivity to triggering will likely increase through the day.
  • The more the snowpack warms-up and weakens, the more conservative you`ll want to be with your terrain selection.
  • Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and cliffs where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.
  • The more the snow feels like a slurpy, the more likely loose wet avalanches will become.
  • If triggered loose wet avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.

Problems

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.

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.