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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 4th, 2025–Mar 5th, 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

South Coast Inland, Birkenhead, Duffey, South Chilcotin, Stein, Taseko.

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

Snowpack Summary

Small amounts of snow will bury a widespread crust on most aspects and elevations. A crust may not exist on north aspects above 2100 m.

Around 40 cm of settled snow sits over a weak layer of facets, surface hoar and sun crust buried in mid February. Numerous large natural and remote-triggered avalanches failed on this layer last week.

Another weak facet/crust/surface hoar layer, from late January, is buried 60 to 80 cm deep. This layer has been the culprit for many very large natural, remote and human-triggered avalanches near Whistler last week.

Weather Summary

Tuesday Night

Cloudy with 0 to 5 cm of snow. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.

Wednesday

Mostly cloudy with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.

Thursday

Mostly sunny. 10 to 20 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.

Friday

Partly cloudy. 10 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Avoid thin areas like rocky outcrops where you're most likely to trigger avalanches on deep weak layers.
  • Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind-affected terrain.
  • Avalanche activity is unlikely when a thick melt-freeze crust is present on the snow surface.

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.

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.