Avalanche forecast

Jasper

Dec 29 – 30, 2013Parks Canada
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Archived · expired 13 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Happy holidays!  Don't let your guard down with triggering the deep basal weakness.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–2
    New snow overnight and winds will continue wind slab development. Fresh snow may be hiding this condition.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2–3
    Expect this layer to persist for a long time. Best to make conservative choices as triggering this layer could have severe consequences. Likely trigger locations are shallow locations but everything is shallow right now.

Weather Forecast

The area may receive 5-10cm of snow between Sunday and Tuesday. Expect seasonal temperatures and gusting 40km/hr westerly winds at higher elevations.

Snowpack Summary

5-10cm last night in the Icefields area is not enough to change the snowpack. It remains generally shallow, weak, with a variably distributed deep persistent slab overlying weak basal layers of depth hoar, crusts, and/or facets. Windslabs have formed in exposed treeline and above areas. Below treeline remains unsupportive.

Avalanche Summary

Four new natural slab avalanches size 2.5-3 was observed today in the alpine on a West aspect in shallow rocks, and steep unskiable terrain at 2400m running on basal weakness. The avalanches were restricted to small area between Boundary peak and Panther falls where snowfalls were slightly more and the temperature dropped quickly in 2 hours.

Confidence

Regions covered