Avalanche forecast

Jasper

Mar 8 – 9, 2013Parks Canada
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Archived · expired 14 years ago

Avalanche danger

Fri
Sat
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

The Maligne Road remains closed due to continued avalanche hazard.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–3
    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.

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3
    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.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2
    Solar radiation and daytime warming will start to melt the new snow. This will create moist or wet point release avalanches on steep solar aspects at lower elevation to treeline.

Weather Forecast

No new precipitation is forecast over the next 48hrs. Winds will remain light and northerly in the Icefields area. The temperatures will increase into the weekend with increased solar radiation as a ridge of high pressure tracks south.

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 areas.  Cool alpine temperatures and cloud cover continues to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the snowpack today. This will change towards the weekend with increased temperatures and clear skies resulting in higher avalanche danger.

Confidence

Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain

Regions covered