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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 3rd, 2018–Apr 4th, 2018

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.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Little Yoho.

The cooler temps are maintaining the fantastic ski quality. Use caution on solar aspects where the recent snow is reactive to skier triggering on buried crusts in specific locations.

Weather Forecast

Unseasonably cold temperatures remain (below zero) in the Valley bottoms for a few days yet. The overnight ridge temperature will stay in the -15 range until Thursday. Cloud cover and light amounts of precip are expected to continue Wed & Thurs. The wind will be SW and increase to moderate as snow squalls pass through the region on Wednesday.

Snowpack Summary

Last weeks storm brought 15-40cm with moderate S and W winds creating wind slabs in the alpine and into exposed areas at treeline. The March 15 suncrust is down 25-50cm on south-east through west aspects and has been sensitive to skier triggering over the last few days. The mid- pack land basal layers have been dormant for the past while.

Avalanche Summary

Skier remote size 1.5 & 2 just outside Lake Louise ski area boundary on East to SE aspects yesterday & today. Both avalanches failed on a buried suncrust down 20-40 cm & occurred in the afternoon.  Whumphing reported on solar aspects in the Hamilton Lake region today, suspect it's the new snow collapsing on a thin layer of facets above the crust.

Confidence

Due to the number of field observations on Tuesday

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

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.