Avalanche forecast

Kitimat

Mar 6 – 7, 2024Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Sat
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Choose mellow terrain.Dangerous avalanche conditions persist.Large avalanches continue to be remotely triggered.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2

    Wind affected snow can be found on most aspects. There is potential for wind slabs to step down to deeper layers triggering larger avalanches.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–3

    Persistent weak layers including crust/facet combos and buried surface hoar have been very reactive to human and machine triggers recently, resulting in some very large avalanches.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Large natural and human-triggered avalanches continue to occur across the forecast area. These include several large (size 2) remotely triggered slabs.

Remote triggers indicate a sensitive snowpack and the need for very conservative terrain choices.

Recent avalanches have occurred on all aspects and at various elevations, on buried weak layers up to 100 cm deep.

Click on the photos below for more details.

Snowpack Summary

Strong winds have created widespread wind effect and built reactive wind slabs at treeline and above. Wind direction has varied so you can expect these slabs on all aspects. In sheltered areas, new surface hoar is growing.

Several persistent weak layers are buried between 50 to 120 cm deep. These weak layers include hard crusts, weak facets and surface hoar.

The recent storm snow is not bonding well to these underlying persistent weak layers. Avalanches continue to be caused on these layers, including remote triggering and very large step-down avalanches.

Weather Summary

Tuesday Night

Mostly clear. No new snow expected. Light southwest ridgetop wind. Temperature inversion breaking down. Treeline temperature around -11 °C.

Wednesday

Mostly cloudy. 2 to 5 cm of snow expected in the afternoon. Moderate southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high around -8 °C.

Thursday

Mostly cloudy. 5 to 15 cm of snow expected. Strong to extreme south or southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high around -5 °C.

Friday

Cloudy. 20 to 30 cm of snow expected to near valley bottom. Possibly more closer to the coast or inlets. Moderate to strong south or southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high around -3 °C

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Remote triggering is a big concern, be aware of the potential for wide propagations and large, destructive avalanches at all elevations.
  • If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
  • Caution required around non obvious avalanche terrain like road cutbanks, cutblocks and other non obvious avalanche terrain

Regions covered