Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Waterton, Waterton Lakes.
This is a good time to avoid all avalanche terrain! We have seen a significant avalanche cycle with the past few days of warming and expect hazard to remain elevated until the snowpack starts to refreeze.
Confidence
High
Avalanche Summary
Numerous natural wet loose avalanches to size 2, several wet slab avalanches to size 2.5 and a few persistent slab avalanches to size 3 were observed on Wednesday.
Snowpack Summary
Surface snow is moist at all elevations with below treeline moist to ground. The snow surface will likely begin refreezing over the next few days. There is a robust melt freeze crust buried 30 - 80 cm deep. This crust exists everywhere except for northerly aspects above 1900 m. The January drought layer lies 50 –130 cm deep, with snow depths at treeline averaging 130–200 cm.
Weather Summary
We are at the tail end of a significant warm up, we should see temperatures start to decrease late on Thursday and then some incoming snow for the weekend. See the table below for a more detailed forecast.
Check out the Mountain Weather Forecast for the most up to date information.
Terrain and Travel Advice
- Carefully manage your exposure to overhead hazards.
- Back off slopes as the surface becomes moist or wet with rising temperatures.
- Avoid thin areas like rocky outcrops where you're most likely to trigger avalanches on deep weak layers.
Avalanche Problems
Wet Slabs
We have seen several wet slabs over the past 2 days, reactivity will likely start tapering once temperatures cool off.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1.5 - 2.5
Loose Wet
This problem will continue to be reactive until the temperature cools down.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Persistent Slabs
We are seeing increased reactivity on this layer with warming penetrating deeper into the snowpack.
Aspects: North, North East, East, West, North West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 2 - 3