Avalanche Forecast
Avalanche Bulletin - Glacier National Park
Watch for storm slabs at treeline and alpine elevations. Keep the persistent weak layers in mind with your trip planning decisions.
Avalanche Problem 1: Storm Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Use conservative route selection, choose moderate angled and supported terrain with low consequence.
- If triggered the storm/wind slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
Avalanche Problem 2: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Persistent weak layers present a lower likelihood/very high consequence scenario with the January 4th and the Dec 15th surface hoar layers. These layers could be sensitive to human triggering in thin areas, or overloads from storm slab avalanches.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be aware of the potential for wide propagations.
- Use caution on open slopes and convex rolls at treeline where buried surface hoar may be preserved.
Avalanche Summary
No new natural avalanche activity observed yesterday with poor visibility. Avalanche control produced one size 1 and one size 2.5 on the Cutbank slide paths in the Beaver Valley.
Snowpack Summary
50cm+ storm snow in the last 3 days at 1900m and over 150cm of snow in the last 2 weeks. Winds light the last 24hrs but are up to mod S'ly this morning. Expect to find fresh windslab along ridge lines and lee features. The Jan 16 surface hoar is down ~50cm, Jan 4 down ~70 and Dec 15 down ~1m+ making for a complex sandwich of weak layers.
Weather Forecast
The snow just keeps on falling with another 6cm forecast today accompanied by gusty SW winds and a 1400m freezing level. Friday/Saturday looks like a lull between systems with cooler temperatures and moderate to light SW-S winds forecast. The next pulse of Pacific moisture is set to hit on Sunday.
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Soft storm slabs sit on a layer of surface hoar and/or a thin crust. They will be most sensitive in areas exposed to wind and unsupported convexities, where there's tension in the snowpack. Storm slabs triggered could step down to deeper weak layers.