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

Mar 28th, 2025–Mar 29th, 2025

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

Regions

North Columbia, South Columbia, Esplanade, Jordan, North Monashee, North Selkirk, Badshot-Battle, Central Selkirk, Goat, Gold, Retallack, Valhalla, Whatshan.

New snow at higher elevations could form fresh slabs. If triggered, they could step down to deeper weak layers.

Continue to make conservative terrain choices.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

A significant avalanche cycle swept through the Columbia Mountains from Monday to Thursday, producing many full-path, size 3 and 4 avalanches. These included persistent slab, storm slab, wet slab, wet loose, and cornice failures.

While natural avalanche activity is expected to decrease, the snowpack remains unstable and untrustworthy after enduring extreme stress from rapidly rising freezing levels and snow/rain.

Snowpack Summary

Convective flurries Friday night may deposit 10 to 25 cm of dry snow at upper elevations, but accumulations will be highly variable. This snow will fall on a wet, rain-soaked upper snowpack. Expect a frozen crust to form across most terrain, except possibly on north alpine slopes.

Recent avalanche activity has involved multiple persistent weak layers. The most common failure layer is the early March surface hoar, facet, and crust layer, buried 70 to 150 cm deep. Many avalanches have also stepped down to deeper weak layers from February and January, buried 150 to 200 cm deep. These layers are still adjusting to recent stress and remain a serious concern for human-triggering and step-down avalanches.

Weather Summary

Friday Night

Cloudy with 10 to 25 cm of snow above 1100 m, rain below. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1400 m.

Saturday

Mix of sun and cloud with 0 to 10 cm of snow above 1500 m, rain below. 10 to 20 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1900 m.

Sunday

Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.

Monday

Mostly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • It's a good day to make conservative terrain choices.
  • Use small, low consequence slopes to test the bond of the new snow.
  • Carefully manage your exposure to overhead hazards.
  • Loose avalanches may step down to deeper layers, resulting in larger avalanches.

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.

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.

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.