The more solar input and warming that occurs, the more the hazard will increase. Avoid areas with a shallow snowpack.
Mt. Bourgeau and Eagle Mountain avalanche closure zones are CLOSED on Friday, March 7th, 2025.
Numerous natural avalanches have been observed on these layers over the past week, particularly in shallow facetted areas on the the eastside of highway 93N.
We suspect this layer to be most reactive on northerly aspects that have not had solar crusts from the recent warm temperatures and sun.
10-20cm of low density snow sits over solar and melt freeze crusts or hard windslabs. With increased warming and solar radiation on Friday, the likelihood of dry and wet loose avalanches will increase. If triggered, expect them to run further than normal due to the hard surfaces underneath.
LL ski hill was reporting several solar triggered dry loose and a few small explosives triggered windslabs in steep alpine terrain. These were soft and isolated and mostly running as loose dry avalanches.
No other avalanches were observed or reported on Thursday.
On the surface, low density snow exists on shaded aspects and crusts / moist snow on solar aspects. A persistent weak layer of facets (Feb. 22nd /Jan 30th layer) exists 20-50cm below the surface. Below this, the snowpack consists of a faceted mid-pack with basal facets at the bottom. The snowpack is variable in strength and depth depending on location, with average treeline snow depths ranging from ~ 75 cm in the east to ~150cm + in the west.
Friday will be another clear day, starting cold with freezing levels rising to ~ 1600m in the afternoon. Mountain top winds will pick up to moderate to strong from the W/NW.
A system is approaching on Saturday that will bring some snow by midday. We are expecting ~ 5 cm on Saturday and another ~ 10-20 cm on Sunday with valley bottom freezing levels and strong to extreme SW winds.
