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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 24th, 2022–Mar 25th, 2022

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

Regions

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

We are entering the time of year where avalanche danger will be directly related to how hot it gets. Many areas will have a LOW danger rating unless they are exposed to the sun. Monitor locally for this. 

Weather Forecast

Valley bottom freezing levels Friday AM rising to 1900m with light winds and a mix of sun and cloud. Saturday is currently forecast to be much the same with increased cloud cover and a trace of snow in some places.

Snowpack Summary

5-10cm in the last 24 hours overlies a new melt freeze crust which extends high into the alpine on solar aspects, and to 2200m on shady aspects. New snow becoming moist in the early PM. Up to treeline, the snow below the new crust was still moist from previous heat. Several buried crusts exist on solar aspects and are found 10 to 80 cm deep.

Avalanche Summary

Explosives control on Wednesday produced mixed results with many that were no result, and other avalanches in the size 1-2.5 range. A size 3 was also triggered on mount Field and Silverhorn Mountains. Forecasters today on a S aspect in Hidden bowl were ski cutting loose wet slides (size 1) over the new crust that ran surprisingly far.

Confidence

Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Friday

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.

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.