Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 13th, 2025–Apr 14th, 2025

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Kananaskis, Bow Valley, Highwood Pass, North 40, Spray - KLakes.

Excellent skiing can be found on high polar aspects. Start early, end early. Day time warming will deteriorate the snowpack.

Confidence

High

Avalanche Summary

Loose dry storm snow from steep terrain was sluffing off naturally, especially when the sun hit the rocky faces.

Solar aspects loose wet were also easily triggered by ski traffic walking along a solar ridge, no natural solar avalanches observed at time of writing.

Snowpack Summary

15-30cm of new low density snow is now overlying previous layers including buried windslabs, sun crusts on solar aspects and temperature crusts on all aspects up to 2300m. This was bonding well to previous layers. There were some isolated pockets of old windslabs but they weren't reactive in our travels. Forecasters were able to ski some steeper lines today and sluffing was running easily but not gaining much mass. Solar aspect loose wet were also easy to start and again not running that far or gaining much mass yet. Solar aspects to 2500m got cooked by the sun today.

Weather Summary

Sunday was awesome. Blue skies, new snow and more confidence in the snowpack. Anywhere between 15-30cm of storm snow fell in the last 24 hours.

Monday: A mix of sun and cloud. No precip expected. Light winds out of the West.

Day time high of -1.

Freezing levels to rise to 2400m

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

Even brief periods of direct sun could produce natural avalanches.
Avoid shallow snowpack areas, rocky outcrops, and steep terrain where triggering is most likely.
Wind slabs are isolated, but may remain reactive.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.

Loose Dry

Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.