Avalanche forecast

Jasper

Mar 27 – 28, 2018Parks Canada
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Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Sheltered terrain should offer good skiing above 2000m

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2.5
    Wind slabs sit on a hard melt-freeze crust on solar aspects, and facets on polar aspects. Assess the bond at these interfaces carefully before committing to avalanche start zones.

Weather Forecast

Cooler temps will follow Tuesday's snowfall with strong SW winds switching to West winds into Wednesday. Broken skies will be replaced by another pulse of snow on Friday and 15-25cm of additional snowfall. Cold arctic air will displace the snow with overnight lows reaching below -20 Saturday morning.

Snowpack Summary

Strong SW winds are moving today's 10-20cm of new storm snow under near zero temps, creating windslabs on lee and cross-loaded features and increasing spring cornices. Early March warm temps created a strong bridging layer, which is capped with a crust on solar aspects to 3000m. This layer is promoting good skiing and travel.

Avalanche Summary

Poor visibility today during storm, no observations from today. Natural avalanches to size 2.5 in the last 5 days from steep, wind loaded terrain. Cornice failures are likely and have caused natural avalanches to size 2 in the last week.

Confidence

Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Friday

Regions covered