Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Mar 6th, 2013 4:00PM

The alpine rating is considerable, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is moderate. Known problems include Loose Dry and Storm Slabs.

max darrah, Parks Canada

Jasper.

Some great skiing to be had in Jasper right now, but it is still a good idea to gather info on smaller terrain features before committing to the bigger lines.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Cool temps to remain until the weekend, with minimal wind and light scattered flurries. Daytime heating and solar radiation will increase towards the weekend, and will increase the avalanche danger.

Snowpack Summary

The recent storm snow appears to be bonding well to previous surfaces, and has been subjected to minimal wind affect. At lower elevations, this storm snow is sitting on a weak and faceted midpack. There is a lot of snow that is plastered to steep rocky terrain that will most likely sluff once the sun hits it in the afternoon.

Avalanche Summary

Monday's explosive control work produced some size 3 soft slabs in the Icefields and Maligne lake alpine areas. They slid on the storm snow interface. A few dusted the highway. Gullies above polar circus were 85% cleaned out with control work. No new slab avalanches were observed or reported today.�

Confidence

Problems

Loose Dry

As the sun peaks out and warms up the day, loose avalanches with significant mass are occurring with increased frequency. They are initiating out of steep W or S facing high elevation rocks or gullies.

Avoid travelling under cliffs that are exposed to sluffing from above.Minimize exposure to sun exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.

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

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

1 - 3

Storm Slabs

The storm slabs remain soft in nature as winds have yet to firm them up. Soft slab conditions do exist on gully sidewalls and some large alpine slopes as Monday's explosive control work demonstrated. Watch for wind building slabs with this snow.

Be careful with wind loaded pockets

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Mar 7th, 2013 4:00PM