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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Feb 26th, 2025–Feb 27th, 2025

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

Regions

Little Yoho.

The snowpack is slowly adjusting, but human triggering remains a risk. The strong to extreme wind and warm temperatures forecast for Thursday will add to the slab development.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

On Thursday, helicopter avalanche control on Mt. Field, Stephen, and Dennis produced slab avalanches up to size 3. Any spot that looked like it could avalanche, did. Many avalanches triggered slabs from the side walls of the path.

Check the avalanche summary in the adjacent Banff forecast for the report of a skier accidental near Lake Louise that happened on Wednesday.

Snowpack Summary

30-35 cm of well-settled storm snow at treeline with mild temps and recent strong S-SW winds created wind and persistent slabs. This snow sits over a layer of weak facets, surface hoar or sun crust from the cold snap.

The mid and lower snowpack is mostly well-settled, though it is heavily facetted in thin snowpack areas. Tree-line snow depths range from 120 cm to 180 cm.

Weather Summary

For Thursday - Friday, flurries with showers at lower elevations are forecast. Freezing levels are 1900 m on Thursday and 2200 m on Friday. Only trace accumulations are expected in the region. Winds will be strong and sustained from the west.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Make conservative terrain choices and avoid overhead hazard.
  • If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
  • Loose avalanches may step down to deeper layers, resulting in larger avalanches.

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.