Avalanche Forecast
North Columbia
Human triggered avalanches are likely this weekend, especially on slopes getting hit by the sun.
Avalanche Problem 1: Storm Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be careful with wind loaded and cross-loaded slopes, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Minimize exposure to steep, sun exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.
- Use caution on open slopes and convex rolls
Avalanche Summary
Preliminary reports from Friday suggest another round of natural avalanche activity occurred during Friday's storm.
Storm slabs avalanches have been reported on a regular basis since Tuesday's storm. During the Tuesday storm, natural avalanches up to size 3 were reported on all aspects from 1900-2800 m. South and west aspects were the most reactive with slabs running on the recently buried late-March crust.
In the days following the storm, several size 2 skier and remotely (from a distance) triggered storm slab avalanches have been reported. On Wednesday most human-triggered avalanches were on south and west aspects in the alpine, while activity on Thursday was mostly on east aspects at treeline. Skier triggered slabs were mostly 30-50 cm thick and ran on the late-March layer. See the recent MIN reports from Glacier National Park for some examples.
Recent explosive control has also produced size 2-3 storm slabs up to 100 cm thick on a range of aspects.
Snowpack Summary
Another 15-30 cm of snow on Friday brings the weekly total to 40-80 cm.
The storm snow sits on an interface buried in late-March that consist of crusts below 1900 m and on south aspects, and surface hoar on shaded aspects at higher elevations.
A deeper layer buried mid-March is now 60 to 90 cm below the surface, and is similar to the late-March interface.
Deeper persistent weak layers from January and December are still being reported by professional observers, but are generally considered dormant.
Weather Forecast
SATURDAY: Sunny with light west wind, freezing level up to 900 m, and alpine high temperatures near -8 C.
SUNDAY: Cloudy with flurries increasing throughout the day (5-15 cm of snow) with moderate west wind, freezing level up to 1000 m, and alpine high temperatures near -6 C.
MONDAY: Mostly cloudy with light wind, freezing level up to 800 m, and alpine high temperatures near -8 C.
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Storm slabs are widespread and will be extra touchy on south aspects where they sit above buried sun crusts as well as wind-loaded terrain above treeline.