Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 24th, 2025–Mar 25th, 2025

Alpine

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Alpine

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Below Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Alpine

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Below Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Regions

Jasper, Brazeau, Churchill, Cirrus-Wilson, Fryatt, Icefields, Maligne, Marmot, Miette Lake, Pyramid.

The snowpack remains susceptible to human-triggered slides. Looking ahead, convectional precip, wind, and warm temps will exacerbate the avalanche hazard.

Given the fragile state of our current snowpack, even minimal additional loading is triggering large destructive slides.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

The field team reports new reactive windslabs in the alpine. Size 3 reported on a large lee feature in the Mt Wilson region. (See photo)

Of note, are reports of large whumphs while traveling on skis is a good indication that the snowpack is still primed for triggering.

Snowpack Summary

In the Alpine: Wind slabs continue to build in lee features throughout the Alpine areas. These slabs will overload the weak persistent slab and continue to produce large avalanches in the region.

Treeline and below: the 70-90 cm from earlier in March has settled into a supportive midpack. This bridges a complicated and reactive deep persistent weakness. Where the snowpack is shallow, the bridging is not strong and triggering a large avalanche is very possible.

Weather Summary

Overnight: Clear with Cloudy periods. No precip. High: -3, Mostly light SW winds, gusting to 35km/h.

Tuesday: Mix of sun and clouds, isolated flurries. Trace of precip. High 0 °C. Winds SW: 15 km/h gusting to 45 km/h. Freezing level: 2300m

Wednesday: Mix of sun and clouds, wet flurries. Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries. Alpine temp: Low -2 °C, High 4 °C. Mostly light S-ly winds: 10-30 km/h. Freezing level: 2700m

Terrain and Travel Advice

Make conservative terrain choices and avoid overhead hazard.
Fresh snow rests on a problematic persistent slab, don't let good riding lure you into complacency.
Remote triggering is a concern; avoid terrain where triggering overhead slopes is possible.

Problems

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.

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

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.