Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Apr 20th, 2022 4:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Wind Slabs.

Snow Safety,

Convective flurries over the next few days may mean more snowfall in certain areas. Be on the lookout for wind effected snow if venturing into steeper alpine terrain. This has been more reactive in the Lake Louise Ski Hill area than other areas.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Stable weather pattern over the next few days but the forecast of convective snow may bring locally variable precipitation in the afternoons. Thursday looks to start cold and clear with light precip in the afternoon, but Friday looks to be significantly more with some areas calling for 20-30 cm and others ~ 5cm. Winds remain generally light.

Snowpack Summary

10-20 cm of new snow with some wind effect at treeline and in the alpine overlies a variety of surfaces from the early April drought. These buried surfaces include wind effected and facetted snow on north aspects and higher elevations (>2500m) and multiple crusts on solar aspects and lower elevations.

Avalanche Summary

Good visibility on a trip to the Bow Summit area today showed evidence of a small natural avalanche cycle that occurred on Tuesday. Most avalanches seemed to be loose dry out of steep alpine terrain with the occasional wind slab in more moderate terrain. Generally size 1-1.5.

LL ski patrol reported numerous skiier controlled avalanches to size 1.5

Confidence

Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

Problems

Wind Slabs

An icon showing Wind Slabs

10-20 cm new with strong winds on Tuesday created wind slabs in some areas. These have been most reactive in steep alpine terrain but also exist in isolated treeline areas.

  • Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

1 - 1.5

Valid until: Apr 21st, 2022 4:00PM