Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

There were a few large natural avalanches (up to size 3.0) from the steep terrain in the highway corridor east of the pass on Friday.

A cycle of natural avalanches occurred during Tuesdays storm, ranging from size 2-3.5. Most notably, there was a natural size 3.5 reported out of the Grizzly path in Connaught, this avalanche ran over the standard skin track.

Avalanche control on Tuesday was effective in producing widespread avalanches throughout the park, up to size 3.5, failing in the recent storm snow with large powder components.

Up to 60cm of storm snow has fallen in the past week, leaving several potential failure planes in the upper snowpack.

The mid-snowpack is generally well bonded rounded grains.

The basal Nov 17 deep persistent weak layer has not produced any slab avalanches in GNP for a couple of weeks now, but persists in many places as faceted crystals - these are accompanied by a decomposing crust in some locations.

An upper level ridge will give a brief break between storms on Saturday. The next system arrives Sunday night into Monday.

Tonight: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries, Alpine low -9°C. Moderate SW ridgetop winds.

Saturday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries. Alpine high -9°C. Light SW wind.

Sunday: Flurries turning to snowfall late in the day(5-10cm). Low -9°C, High -5°C. Moderate SW wind.

Monday: Snow (10-15cm). Low -13°C, High -6°C. Moderate-Strong SW wind.

• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Avoid freshly wind loaded terrain features.