Avalanche forecast

Jasper

Dec 30 – 31, 2013Parks Canada

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Archived · expired 13 years ago

Avalanche danger

Mon

Tue

Alpine

3 · Considerable

Treeline

2 · Moderate

Below

1 · Low

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Highlights

Happy holidays! Don't let your guard down with triggering the deep basal weakness. It remains unpredictable.

Avalanche problems

Wind Slabs
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline
Likelihood
Unlikely - Possible
Size
1–2
New snow over the weekend and winds will add to the wind slab development and hide it in some cases. Check for freshly loaded spots where a pocket of this instability would exist. Iceclimbers be cautious of crossloaded gullies and terrain traps.
Deep Persistent Slabs
N
NE
E
SE
S
SW
W
NW
Alpine
Treeline
Below treeline
Likelihood
Possible
Size
2–3
Expect this layer to persist for a long time. Due to its unpredictable nature, use conservative choices as triggering this layer could have severe consequences. Shallow locations are likely trigger spots. Generally, everything is shallow right now.

Weather Forecast

Expect 5-10cm from Sunday evening into Tuesday with seasonal temperatures. Winds will be light, gusting moderate Westerlies at higher elevations. Unsettled weather the next few days.

Snowpack Summary

The light precipitation amounts this weekend was not enough to alter the snowpack. It remains shallow with a variably distributed deep persistent slab overlying weak basal layers of depth hoar, crusts, and facets. Windslabs of various thicknesses continue to form in lee locations at treeline and above areas. Below treeline remains unsupportive.

Avalanche Summary

Saturday, four slab avalanches size 2.5-3 was observed in the alpine on a West aspect in shallow rocks, and steep unskiable terrain at 2700m running on basal weakness. The avalanches were restricted to a small zone between Boundary peak and Panther falls along the Parkway. Visibility was poor on Sunday.

Confidence

Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Monday

Regions covered

Jasper