Avalanche forecast

Waterton Lakes

Apr 8 – 11, 2024Avalanche Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 2 years ago

Avalanche danger

Wed
Thu
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

A blip of new snow coming on Tuesday with strong winds will form new reactive windslabs. Despite it being spring, winter conditions still exist at higher elevations and northerly aspects.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–1.5

    New snow with strong SW winds on Tuesday will form small but reactive windslabs on top of old windslab or crust.

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

    When new snow from Tuesday gets warm and moist on Wednesday there will likely be widespread wet-loose avalanches on steep slopes that run on the underlying crust.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Numerous wet loose avalanches to size 2 were observed on steep solar slopes the past few days.

Snowpack Summary

15 - 30 cm of new snow from this past weekend has become moist at and below treeline and is refreezing overnight. This along with windslab in the alpine sits on an older melt-freeze crust at all aspects and elevations. The Feb 3rd crust/facet weak layer is buried 60-120 cm deep. Below this, the snowpack consists of a mixture of settled snow and crust/facet layers to ground. Snowpack depths between 80 - 250 cm.

Weather Summary

Tues

5-10 cm snow overnight and into the day Tues. Wind 30-50 km/hr from the SW and freezing level rising to 2000 m.

Wed

Mainly sunny, wind NW becoming SW 10-20 km/hr. Freezing level rising to 2200 m.

Thurs

Freezing level 2500 m. Light southwest wind.

For more info: Mountain Weather Forecast.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • Minimize exposure to sun-exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.
  • Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.

Regions covered