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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 24th, 2023–Apr 25th, 2023

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

Regions

Little Yoho.

Start and finish early to take advantage of better travel and a lower likelihood of upper snowpack avalanches while the surface snow remains frozen.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Some small loose wet avalanches have been observed in the past few days on steep solar aspects or at low elevations with daytime warming. A size 3 skier-triggered avalanche failing on the basal facets occurred in a closed area within the Lake Louise ski resort on Saturday.

Snowpack Summary

3-8 cm new snow. Solar aspects are getting moist in the afternoon, creating new crusts daily, and multiple buried crusts are present. On northerly aspects, temperature crusts are present up to 2200 m, with 10-20 cm of preserved surface snow above this elevation and some wind transport at ridge crests. In shallow areas the base of the snowpack remains weak due to the presence of facets.

Weather Summary

Light flurries, moderate west winds and freezing levels down to 1500 m are expected Monday night.

On Tuesday freezing levels will climb to about 2100 m with moderate west winds and continued light flurries. Light rain is possible at valley bottoms. No significant accumulations are expected.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • A moist or wet snow surface, pinwheeling and natural avalanches are all indicators of a weakening snowpack.
  • Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.

Problems

Storm Slabs

Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-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.

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.