Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 27th, 2018 4:00PM

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

landon shepherd, Parks Canada

Jasper.

Sheltered terrain should offer good skiing above 2000m

Summary

Weather Forecast

Cooler temps will follow Tuesday's snowfall with strong SW winds switching to West winds into Wednesday. Broken skies will be replaced by another pulse of snow on Friday and 15-25cm of additional snowfall. Cold arctic air will displace the snow with overnight lows reaching below -20 Saturday morning.

Snowpack Summary

Strong SW winds are moving today's 10-20cm of new storm snow under near zero temps, creating windslabs on lee and cross-loaded features and increasing spring cornices. Early March warm temps created a strong bridging layer, which is capped with a crust on solar aspects to 3000m. This layer is promoting good skiing and travel.

Avalanche Summary

Poor visibility today during storm, no observations from today. Natural avalanches to size 2.5 in the last 5 days from steep, wind loaded terrain. Cornice failures are likely and have caused natural avalanches to size 2 in the last week.

Confidence

Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Friday

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind slabs sit on a hard melt-freeze crust on solar aspects, and facets on polar aspects. Assess the bond at these interfaces carefully before committing to avalanche start zones.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.Minimize exposure to steep, sun exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.

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

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2.5

Valid until: Mar 28th, 2018 4:00PM