Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Waterton Lakes.
Warm temps and wind are eroding snow and waterfall ice near town. Good skiing is still available near Cameron Lake area.
South facing ice climbs on Crandell are rapidly deteriorating.
Weather Forecast
Tues: Cloudy, with strong ridge top winds switching to NW. Alpine temps -4. FL valley bottom
Wed: Cloudy, with clearing near noon and trace precip overnight. Alpine temps +2 with moderate to strong wind. FL 1500m
Thursday: Clear with a alpine high of +3. Ridge top winds S-X and switching back to west. FL 1500m
Snowpack Summary
Warm temps and X-westerly wind has built 20- 40 cm windslabs in lees. Moist snow to approximately 1800m This overlies Jan 18 crust extending all aspects up to 2000m, and higher on solar aspects. Well settled midpack, with facets above Dec 4 crust, buried 150-200 cm, above Nov layers.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches observed. Please post any avalanche observations on the Mountain Information Network, we really appreciate any observations.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
A complex of windslabs has formed on top of the January crust. Failures are possible near the surface or deeper on the crust.
- Avoid steep lee and cross-loaded slopes
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South, North West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2