Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 9th, 2017 8:19AM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is moderate. Known problems include Wind Slabs and Persistent Slabs.

ross campbell, Parks Canada

Glacier.

Skier triggered avalanches are possible! Don't let your powder goggles blind your avalanche awareness. The sun in March packs punch and can change near surface layers quickly.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Expect a mixed bag of weather today with convective flurries as the culprit. Sunny skies in the morning will give way to short lived blustery snow. The next source of precipitation will begin tonight finishing Friday night, dropping 20cm of snow, winds gusting to strong from the south and FL rising.

Snowpack Summary

In March so far we have seen nearly 1m of new snow and strong to extreme winds from the south. Late February crusts are buried 50-90cm deep on solar aspects, and a spotty mixed form layer lies under the storm snow on more polar asp. The Nov Cr remains dormant while the midpack is gaining strength and rounding.

Avalanche Summary

Avalanche activity has been decreasing as a trend, however we are still observing infrequent natural wind slabs failing in steep terrain in the highway corridor to size 2.5.

Confidence

Due to the number of field observations

Problems

Wind Slabs

Moderate to strong S winds transported snow at upper elevations forming soft slabs along the immediate lee of ridges and cross winded features. Skiers were able to trigger wind slabs on immediate lee features yesterday.

The new snow will require several days to settle and stabilize.Pay attention to overhead hazards like cornices which could easily trigger deep slabs.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

1 - 3

Persistent Slabs

Buried crusts on solar aspects are hidden under the march snow. A snow profile yesterday on a south aspect showed the storm snow bonding to the crust, however skiers were able to trigger slab avalanches on this layer earlier in the week.

Avoid shallow snowpack areas where triggering is more likely.Be cautious of buried obstacles in shallow snowpack areas.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Mar 10th, 2017 8:00AM