Avalanche Forecast
Northwest Inland
Strong to extreme winds Thursday night and Friday will build wind slabs in exposed terrain at upper elevations. Watch for areas with stiff or chalky looking snow.
Avalanche Problem 1: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- If triggered the storm/wind slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
- Use caution in lee areas. Recent wind loading has created wind slabs.
- Be careful with wind loaded areas, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
Avalanche Summary
A natural, solar triggered size 2 avalanche was reported on Wednesday morning in the Howson range, as well as skier triggered size 1 storm slab releases on a buried sun crust (30 cm deep) on a southeast aspect at 1700 m.
Friday of last week, a natural avalanche cycle up to size 2-3 occurred in response to storm snow loading.
Snowpack Summary
From 20 cm up to 40-50 cm of recent storm snow sits above a variety of crusts on all but high north aspects.
Weak layers buried around March 19th are roughly 40 cm below the surface. These weak layers include surface hoar on shaded aspects at high elevations and hard crust layers on solar aspects and below treeline.
Near the bottom of the snowpack, weak and sugary facets are found in shallow, rocky snowpack areas. Storm slabs have stepped down to these facets and producing very large avalanches in northern parts of the region.
Weather Forecast
TONIGHT: Flurries. Accumulation up to 4 cm. Ridge wind strong to extreme, southeast. Alpine temperature near -14. Freezing level valley bottom.
FRIDAY: Cloudy, light flurries. Accumulation up to 2 cm. Ridge wind moderate to strong, south. Alpine temperature near -10. Freezing level 600 m.
SATURDAY: Mix of sun and cloud. Ridge wind moderate to strong, east. Alpine temperature near -5. Freezing level 1100 m.
SUNDAY: Cloudy, light flurries. Accumulation up to 2 cm. Ridge wind moderate, southwest. Alpine temperature near -5. Freezing level 1400 m.
Avalanche Forecasts in your Inbox
Avalanche Canada has switched to an RSS feed for its daily forecasts. This is a much more flexible method that allows automatic delivery to your email inbox, or to an RSS reader of your choice.
What are RSS feeds?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a popular standardized file format allowing up-to-date delivery of web-based content. RSS feeds enable you to receive content updates from websites, delivered to your email through an RSS aggregator (such as blogtrottr.com) or viewed through applications called RSS readers (such as feedly.com).
Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- Northwest Inland URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/northwest-inland.rss - Copy the url and paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS aggregator.
- Fill in your email address.
- Voila! Watch the Avalanche Canada forecast roll into your inbox.
Forecast Disclaimer
Avalanche Canada's Public Avalanche Bulletin, and other information and services provided by Avalanche Canada, are intended for personal and recreational purposes only.
**THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM DISCOMFORT, INJURY, OR DEATH, CLAIMS BY THIRD PARTIES OR FOR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS, OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.**
The user acknowledges that it is impossible to accurately predict natural events such as avalanches in every instance, and uses the data in this bulletin with this always foremost in mind. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and the Providers disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use the data.
Strong to extreme winds and light amounts of new snow will create wind slabs on leeward and cross-loaded slopes at treeline and above.