Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Waterton, Waterton Lakes.
Very cold temps for the next couple days. Prepare with extra layer and warm drinks. Plan to end your day a bit early so as not to get caught out.
Not a lot of field observations on the surface hoar that is now buried at least 30cm. Use caution and careful assessment as windslabs may propagate more dramatically if this layer exists.
Confidence
Moderate
Avalanche Summary
A natural cycle was observed from the road today. Several dry loose avalanches up to size 2 and one isolated size 2.5 that ran to valley bottom.
Snowpack Summary
30cm of new snow in the last week with variable winds building soft slab in standard and reverse loaded lees. This overlies the 2022-12-14 surface hoar layer and a settling midpack. Below 1900m the lower snowpack is faceted, however, no failures have been observed. We are tracking two separate unreactive crusts from early season warm-ups.
Weather Summary
Tues
Cold temps today with an alpine high of -21. Variable moderate winds and light snow through the day. Up to 10cm possible
Wed
Very cold today with an alpine high of -35. Light north winds and no significant precip expected.
Thurs
The beginning of the warm up, with alpine temps rising to -21 today. Light north winds expected.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Be carefull around freshly wind loaded features.
Avalanche Problems
Loose Dry
As cold storm snow accumulates the potential for larger dry loose avalanches will increase.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5
Wind Slabs
Windslab may be built on a surface hoar layer that was buried on Dec 14th.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5