Avalanche forecast

Waterton Lakes

Dec 20 – 23, 2022Avalanche Canada
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Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

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.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    Windslab may be built on a surface hoar layer that was buried on Dec 14th.

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    As cold storm snow accumulates the potential for larger dry loose avalanches will increase.

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.

Confidence

Moderate

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.

Regions covered