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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 17th, 2025–Feb 18th, 2025

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

Regions

Glacier.

As the temperatures warm up, strong solar radiation has the potential to trigger the weak, sugary facets.

Sluffs in steep terrain may gather up enough mass to produce a sizeable avalanche, so keep your wits about you as you enjoy the long-awaited warmth!

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Frequent Flyer in Connaught Creek ran Monday afternoon, size 2, across the skin track, burying ~15-20m of the uptrack up to 50cm deep. Trigger was likely strong solar radiation at ~1pm.

A field team up in the Hermit zone had significant whumphing on solar aspects, but there wasn't enough of a cohesive slab on top to cause an avalanche.

Neighbouring operations, particularly to the west, are still reporting rider & remote triggered avalanches on the Jan 30th layer.

Snowpack Summary

5-10cm of new snow sits on a faceted upper snowpack. Old wind affected areas under this new snow have softened/rotted out due to the cold temps.

A weak layer of surface hoar, facets and/or suncrust (Jan 30th) is 20-50cm down. This layer failed easily in snowpack tests at 1700m on the Smart paths. Watch out when this layer gets overloaded!

The Jan 7th layer is down 50-80 and is decomposed surface hoar or a thin crust on South and West aspects. This layer has been inactive recently.

Weather Summary

Light winds and slowly rising freezing levels the next couple of days.

Tonight Cloudy with clear periods. Alpine low -14°C. Ridge winds N 10km/hr

Tues A mix of sun/cloud. Alp high -10°C. Light S wind.

Wed A mix of sun/cloud. Alp high -7°C. Light SW wind. Freezing level (FZL) rising to 1100m.

Thurs Cloudy with isolated flurries. Alp high -6°C. Light W wind. FZL 1200m.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Be careful with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.
  • Avoid steep, sun-exposed slopes when the air temperature is warm or when solar radiation is strong.
  • Back off if you encounter whumpfing, hollow sounds, or shooting cracks.

Problems

Loose Dry

Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.

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.