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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 10th, 2022–Mar 11th, 2022

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

Regions

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

The hazard will gradually increase with the  winds and snow forecasted for Friday night and Saturday. How much and when the hazard rises will depend on intensity of the winds and snow amounts.

Weather Forecast

The next few days will warm slowly as the weather pattern changes to a south west flow. Not much change expected Friday morning but starting Friday afternoon winds out of the west will start to increase. Strong winds, temperatures up to -8 and 3-6 cm of snow expected on Saturday.

Snowpack Summary

5-10 cm of low density snow sits over a sun crust on steep solar aspects that exists up to ~2600m. Moderate North winds over Wednesday night created some wind effect in high alpine terrain. February 16 sun crust down 30-40 cm on west, south and east aspects. January 30 facet or sun crust interface is down 50-80 cm. Lower snowpack is well settled.

Avalanche Summary

On Tuesday a skier triggered a large persistent slab (size 3.5) on the SE slope of Vermillion Peak. No involvement was reported but this is a wake-up to the potential on this crust. Also on Tues we received a report of a cornice triggered size 2.5 slab avalanche on Mt. Carnarvon in Yoho - this one also likely ran on the crust.

Confidence

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.