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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 4th, 2025–Apr 5th, 2025

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Regions

Little Yoho.

Solar heating has already exerted significant impacts on the snowpack this week. A bigger punch is forecast to arrive Saturday which may have the biggest effect yet.

While the dry snow on higher, north slopes will draw travelers this weekend, be warned that this is also where the risk of triggering the persistent slab is the greatest.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

No new activity was reported today in this subregion.

Snowpack Summary

Surface crusts on all aspects to ~2800 m except north, where up to 30 cm of dry snow is found at higher elevations. On southerly aspects, this 30cm contains several crusts.

Below this, a prominent rain crust (Mar 27) is found everywhere up to at least 2300m and ridge top on solar slopes.

This sits on approx 80 cm of firm snow that overlies the Jan 30 facets. These are stronger in Little Yoho than further east but still show potential for propagation with sudden planar test results.

Weather Summary

Solar heating is the most important input right now.

A ridge brings light to moderate west winds under clear skies through Sunday night.

Overnight lows Friday night near treeline will be near -10C with the freezing level climbing to near 2400m Saturday afternoon.

While the winds may be enough to discourage the effects of solar inputs in higher, open areas, expect moist snow on sheltered steep slopes

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.
  • Avoid steep, sun-exposed slopes when the air temperature is warm or when solar radiation is strong.
  • Start your day early and be out of avalanche terrain during the heat of the day.
  • Avalanche danger will increase as the surface crust breaks down.

Problems

Persistent Slabs

Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.