Avalanche forecast

Jasper

Dec 29 – 30, 2022Avalanche Canada
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Archived · expired 4 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sat
Sun
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

The highway is open to Parkers Summer for recreational use.

Avalanche Control on Highway 93 was stymied by poor visibility Wednesday. Anticipating full opening Thursday at 17:00.

Be very cautious in open areas where a stiffer slab will propagate widely. The few shots we could take showed a 4F soft slab, reactive to light loads, down 20 cm.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely
    Size
    1–2.5

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–3

    This problem includes a buried facet-surface hoar layer buried 30-40cm down as well as the bottom of the snow pack is inherently weak with well developed Facets and Depth hoar particularly in shallow locations. An avalanche initiating in the upper snowpack has the potential to step down to this deeper layer. This problem may extend below tree line in isolated, steep, open slopes.

Confidence

Moderate

Avalanche Summary

Avalanche Control was delayed due to poor visibility. Observed natural activity is limited to the alpine. The few charges deployed today all produced storm slab results on low-elevation targets up to sz 1.5.

Snowpack Summary

20-30 cm of storm snow has developed into a soft slab over very airy facets. The storm interface is mostly made up of facets and small surface hoar making it quite reactive. Facets and depth hoar make up the deep persistent base, to ground. Snow height ranges from 50-120cm.

Weather Summary

Overnight Wednesday and through the day Thursday, the forecast calls for mainly cloudy skies with very light flurries. Light to Moderate winds from the southwest. Temperatures steady at -10.

Terrain and Travel Advice

  • In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.
  • Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.

Regions covered