Banff Yoho Kootenay
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 18th, 2025Crowfoot / Little Crowfoot / Ferris Glacier
Toured up to the summit of Crowfoot Mountain (and partway up Little Crowfoot).
Travel was fast and firm in the morning. Coverage in the canyon was good. No visible sags in the Ferris glacier. Skinned to the Crowfoot ridge line. A party of three ahead of us noted several settlements as they approached ridge line. We boot hiked/traversed to the true summit, keeping to areas of exposed rock and disconnected terrain to stay clear of the large cornices and avoid potential settlements in connected terrain. No further settlements were noted.
Ski quality was good overall, but variable at times. ~5cm cold, wind pressed powder. Intermittently grabby wind crust and occasional sastrugi.
Clear blue skies all day, but a steady breeze seemed to be keeping alpine slopes cool (still dry when descending at ~12:30 - corn crops needed a while longer). The gully was also still firm/scraping on the exit until the very lower areas. Lake had ~1cm moist surface by 1pm, but still skate-able.
Pics of Balfour Col and recent crown on St. Nicholas also attached.
Ron.Lakeman.Fan.Club,
Friday 18th April, 2025 6:00AM
Dolomite Circuit
Went for a quick lap of Dolomite Circuit today. Temps were -8 at the car around 0700 when we started and +5 at the car at 1100 when we finished. In the alpine it was warm in the sun, though it didnt feel like ambient air temps went above zero while we were up there. We also observed light winds.
There was a solid melt/freeze crust on most aspects that we travelled on which made for fast travel, though the snow on the descent was variable though firm at the time we went down as it hadnt had a chance to warm up yet. We also noted some wind effect on north facing slopes, and some isolated pockets of very thin wind slabs.
riley.ager,
Friday 18th April, 2025 6:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 17th, 2025Spring dreams
summited cathedral and skied the north couloir out . -9.0 in parking lot at 7:00 am. Great travel with trace on a supportive crust on south quarter aspects. S quarter cycle of wet loose over last 3-5 days under 2500m . Intense solar throughout day with calm-light winds to summit.Surface Snow became moist around 1130 at 2650.m. Glacier was well filled and easy travel to summit. Some wind effect at ridge top but unreactive.
North aspects above 2400m skied well. Trace on bomber crust throughout the rest.
Rytheskiguy,
Thursday 17th April, 2025 6:00AM
White Pyramid
Good travels conditions, freezing levels were 1700m today. Variable wind slab to crust made for poor skiing but had fun walking the ridge to the summit in the sun. Crampons and an ice were used. Mistaya river still well frozen.
wardsbd,
Wednesday 16th April, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 16th, 2025Aemmer Couloir
Party of 3 left parking lot at 6:45AM, easy travel to the base and through the trees. Brutal winds howling, and ping pong ball conditions on the approach. A second party of 3 caught up to us and we tackled the boot pack together. Couloir was somewhat wind affected (approx 5-8cm skin) with a supportive mid pack. Wind gusts on the bootpack were intermittent, but strong at times. No rock fall or major sluffing noted on the bootpack. Skiing was surprisingly good for this year, and better than we expected based on the approach. Quite soft with a few face shots thrown in. A lot of sluff management needed on descent, first skier down did trigger a very small wind slab in an isolated wind loaded pocket (maybe size 0.5) that did not propagate, step down, or run far.
jonahhann,
Wednesday 16th April, 2025 4:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 15th, 2025Mt Bell couloir
Mt Bell couloir skied great today. Nice pow on the top and lower section. The middle was a bit punchy. The lake is quick to skate across. The Taylor lake trail is icy fast and still completely covered. Spring is a wonderful time in the rockies. I’ve included a few photos of some other areas I could see with my camera in the distance.
mark.wizinsky,
Tuesday 15th April, 2025 10:00AM
Slim Jimmy
Skied Mount Jimmy Simpson today. The day was mostly cloudy with steady winds keeping the snow cool. Solid crust up to the top of treeline on all solar slopes we travelled. In the alpine on more easterly aspects the crust became only a few cm’s thin and very breakable and hooky.
A hasty pit showed several crusts in the upper 50 with the surface crust being not well bonded but having no energy or mass to propitiate and slide.
Near ridge top(2700) there was some wind blown coral reef on top of the crust but no significant wind slab.
An old (>48hrs?) size 2 dps slab on a thin and rocky sw facing slope in the alpine and a size 3 cornice/slab failure off the climbers left side(E facing) were the only avalanches of note.
We skied the south couloir to the creek bed and although very thin and rocky the surface snow had softened but remained very supportive the whole way down.
Over all things look well filled on the 93N.
jackvanlierop3807,
Tuesday 15th April, 2025 9:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 14th, 2025Hector South Peak
At 11:45am the S Ridge and West facing slopes below the ridge had still not softened up enough for good skiing. The scramble and long march to the summit were very rewarding. Ski crampons and ice axe got used today. Quite a hard melt freeze crust. Boot crampons would likely be a good idea.
Fulford,
Monday 14th April, 2025 10:45AM
St Nicholas
Nice conditions on the ridge of St Nicholas for bootpacking this morning. Snowpack was supportive underfoot. On the way down, the steeper slopes were wind-affected and skiing was grabby. Better turns on the mellower slopes.
On Sunday, the wind was gusting at ridgetop, we were mindful of windslab during the trip.
onayasfluker,
Monday 14th April, 2025 9:00AM
Mt Stanley
Great conditions up in the alpine, low winds and some cloud coverage made for colder temperatures. Lots of sloughing on the descent of N face of Stanley, but no wind slabs.
Glacier is more crevassed and less planar than previous years. Access ramp through the back of the valley had thin spots (probed anywhere between 20-30cm and 300 cm) and the slab on basal facets was a concern in thin areas. The top of the ramp is becoming increasingly crevassed with the glacier receding, especially on the looker’s right as you access the main glacier.
Awesome skiing both on the Kahl face and on the moraines back down to the valley.
We noticed a big point release come down on the Stanley Headwall around 10:30 AM from the upper headwall.
joel,
Monday 14th April, 2025 6:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 13th, 2025Mt Whymper
Amazing conditions on Whymper for mid April. The north facing slopes held reasonably dry powder. Lower down had a few cms on crust.
At the steepest point, a member of our group did a hand shear test where they were able to get a clean shear about 30cm down on a previous wind crust.
Another group came along and felt comfortable boot packing this section, which we eventually did as well.
Skiing we found no major instability, just sloughing on the steepest pitches.
TheViewSeeker,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 1:00PM
Wapta in great shape
Great conditions up on the Wapta
Bow canyon is still in great shape
Bow lake still well frozen
Lots of groups out
Thompson has snow on it!
Rhonda in great shape
Olive & Gordon still in great shape (skied them last weekend)
Still cold up on the Wapta in the wind, only evidence of sun effect was in the ski down from the hut
Great turns to be had on the Headwall
williamson.briony,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 11:00AM
Surprise pass
Decent “spring” day up surprise. The fresh snow improved ski quality, but the snow under the surface layer was hard and bumpy.
Ski crampons we’re not needed, but one of us had them and it made going up the pass much easier.
colinhoglund13,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 10:00AM
Avi Little Hector (E Alpine)
jimk,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 10:00AM
Cathedral north couloir
Great conditions on Cathedral. North couloir goes without a rap. Go get it before the exit gully melts out. No signs of instability other than some minor sloughing off the south facing cliffs. Sun was strong but air temps stayed cold up high at least until noonish when we topped out.
jacksonbodtker,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 8:00AM
Cirque Forepeak
We chose to try this because of the bomber crusts we'd seen and heard of in the area – despite S, SE aspects.
-11ºC in the parking lot at 8 AM. Went up the middle of the drainages and got out of the trees quickly through the northern gully marked on our maps. Saw a sz 1 natural from a few days ago. Once near treeline, skins slid on S aspect crusts so we stuck to N aspects.
Crust and ~10 cm powder on top felt solid so we proceeded to summit Cirque Forepeak and skied down north, aiming for a specific entry back into the uptrack gully.
By this time – around 1 PM, the sun had started to affect surface snow. Saw pinwheeling and it was easy to make snowballs. We became more cautious and decided to stay away from steep, sun-exposed slopes.
We overshot our uptrack gully and realized that it was actually the middle one of three drainages. We instead were caught in a third, more northern one that was not marked on any of our maps or visible from satellite photos. On our way down, traversing to find a way into this unmarked, northernmost drainage, we kicked down a sz 0.5 off a steep SW aspect – 10 cm thick, ran ~10 m and just under 10 m wide.
We would not have skied this slope but had felt that crossing it would lead to the easier way down into the drainage. But still, this was very indicative of the spring conditions we're in!!! Snow conditions got slushier as we descended. In hindsight, the Confessions book shows all three drainages well. Lessons learned.
accounts,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 7:00AM
Aemmer's
Good skiing on Aemmer's couloir. Fast travel conditions to Lake Annette and to the base of the couloir, bootpacking was generally boot-top. Descent offered good ski quality, mostly soft conditions inside the couloir. Very quiet morning up there with very little wind.
Found a skiff of wind slab (only 3-5 cm thick, easy to break apart) as we neared the top of the couloir but less than we were expecting.
joel,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 4:00AM
Chickaboom
Chickaboom traverse is in great conditions. Supportive crust on sunny slopes all the way to Chimney Col with 5cm dust on crust. N glacier is accessed far skier right due to cornice and crevasse, but is otherwise well filled in. Very nice pow (30cm). Where you skin back up towards Chickadee, we went down a broad gully to Boom Lake instead (last picture).
The tour felt really safe, but there have been some very large slides on unsupported rocky thin steep terrain. Also of concern was a N facing slide halfway up a large steep slope relatively well supported (2nd picture).
yannick.champollion,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 11:00PM
Wind slabs are still out there!
Very good ski quality on high alpine north aspects with 10-30 cm of low density powder increasing with elevation.
info,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 4:03PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 12th, 2025Chickaboom traverse
Chickadee valley side - generally good travel, vis was low, dust on sun crust made for challenging skinning when it got steep. Constant flurries through out day, so could be better than what we had.
N slopes off boom was excellent skiing. Pwl was unreactive, major concerns of day were many wind rolls & large crevasses right off summit of high col.
Descent we took the shoulder back into chickadee, skied tight trees into valley. This was TERRIBLE, snow was isothermal soup, breaking constantly. Probably the worst ski descent of my life. Cannot recommend this at all in current conditions. Should have exited via Boom lake
mitchell.guichon,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 9:00AM
Mt. Bell Couloir
Awesome conditions on Mt. Bell. Snowed on and off all day (0800 - 1600) but very few signs of instability (some sluffing off sun-exposed cliffs). In total we saw ~8 cm of fresh stellar flakes.
adtolppanen,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 7:00AM
Rockbound Lake Trail
Went up the rockbound lake trail in an attempt to ski Helena Ridge East though bailed due to very poor visibility. The trail to rockbound lake is in very poor shape for skinning/skiing currently. We hiked for the first 1.5km before putting our skis on around 1700m elevation, though the snowpack is still incredibly thin and icy until about 2000m. Another group who was coming up while we were on our way out opted to hike higher than we did before putting skis on.
It was about -2 at the car and got colder the further we ascended. It also snowed fairly consistently during our ascent and we saw around 5cm of fresh, dry snow around tower lake and above with snow continuing to fall.
riley.ager,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 2025St Nicholas Remote
blake.gooding.89,
Friday 11th April, 2025 11:00AM
Pumpkin Traverse
Did Pumpkin Traverse in reverse(Unity to Lipalian) today.
5-15cm of new snow at TL and up, averaging 10cm. The morning was sunny and warm but by noon clouds and wind came and kept the surface snow fairly cool. Lots of wind transport at ridgetop building slabs on primarily SE aspects in the immediate lee. SE-W slopes had a solid crust that held up throughout the day and was very skiable.
I was able to ski cut small wet loose avalanches on this crust around noon on steep south slopes off Unity Peak @2600m. I skied down through Elevator Shaft, some cross loading on more East facing micro features but had zero results with two ski cuts. Dry pow all the way into Rock Garden skied well.
Overall travel was fast(minus 30min of glomping across redoubt lake and the meadows below Unity Peak) and skiing was good. Coverage in the surrounding area was also good.
jackvanlierop3807,
Friday 11th April, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 9th, 2025Bow Summit (N side Mt. Jimmy Simpson)
Pit: 1226hr, elevation 2323m. Pit facing E-NE. Overcast skies. A few passing wind gusts (maybe <15km/hr, at most?). Total 80cm snow. Solid ice-snow combination 0-20cm. No basal facets. Weak snow layer at 20cm. Ice layer at 50cm. Fist penetrated easily at 60cm. Ice layer at 65cm. Unconsolidated snow between the 50cm and 60cm ice layers. Fresh snow 66cm-80cm. 65cm ice layer caved in on three soft taps. Weighted block on skis, 65cm ice layer collapsed-slid slightly (see pic). No other layer moved.
Decent skiing was had on first lap, going north towards Peyto lake (1300hr). Firm and held well, with just the right amount of give. By the second lap (1400hr), the surface layer snow softened, sticky, making going slow.
rborotk1,
Wednesday 9th April, 2025 11:26AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Reactive wet slab
tlaberge,
Monday 7th April, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 5th, 2025Cirque West Ridge
Approaching the saddle of Cirque North Bowl via the West ridge we got cliffed out while sidling around the subpeak. Stepping onto what looked like a stable snow slope off the smaller subcliff turned out to be a mistake. Good chance it extended into a cornice but wasnt observed from above. One person was on the structure when it failed. Large blocks of wet slab fractured and slid approx 100-200m. Person pulled airbag and floated on the surface of the slide. No injuries and not buried at all. Retreated via Helen Creek.
r.m.instone,
Saturday 5th April, 2025 12:00PM