Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Mar 26th, 2025–Mar 27th, 2025

Alpine

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Below Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Alpine

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Alpine

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Treeline

Natural and human triggered avalanches likely.

Below Treeline

Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.

Regions

Jasper, Brazeau, Churchill, Cirrus-Wilson, Fryatt, Icefields, Maligne, Marmot, Miette Lake, Pyramid.

Warm temperatures and new precipitation have resulted in a touchy snowpack that will remain triggerable to human traffic into Thursday evening.

Shallow surface instabilities are likely to step down to layers deeper in the snowpack resulting in large avalanches.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Road patrols on the icefields Parkway observed a widespread wet loose cycle to size 2 in steep terrain on all aspects, triggering persistent and deep persistent slab avalanches in some areas, as Storm slab avalanches were also observed occurring on solar aspects. Poor visibility into terrain above 2000m.

Snowpack Summary

Warm temperatures on Wednesday have resulted in moist surface snow to 2600m. 10-20 cm of new snow is settling quickly.

In the alpine, SW winds have redistributed snow from earlier in the month. At treeline and below, the 70-90 cm from earlier in March has settled into a supportive midpack. This bridges a complicated and reactive deep persistent weakness. Where the snowpack is shallow, the bridging is not strong and triggering a large avalanche is very possible.

Weather Summary

Thursday

Accumulation: 10 cm. Alpine temperature: High 1 °C. Ridge wind east: 10 km/h. Freezing level: 2200 meters.

Friday

Accumulation: 7 cm. Alpine temperature: Low -8 °C, High -2 °C. Ridge wind south: 10-25 km/h. Freezing level: 1900 meters.

Saturday

Accumulation: 17 cm. Alpine temperature: Low -5 °C, High -2 °C. Ridge wind light to 20 km/h. Freezing level: 1900 meters.

Terrain and Travel Advice

Make conservative terrain choices and avoid overhead hazard.
Remote triggering is a concern; avoid terrain where triggering overhead slopes is possible.

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.

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.

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.