Banff Yoho Kootenay
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Healy Pass
Surprisingly fun day out exploring our new snowpack world in Healy pass. HS at the pass was between 190-200cm. All of the summer trail avalanche paths went big in the last few days but not big enough to reach the summer trail. They were all destructive wet avalanches that looked like they could take out a house. Many large crowns across the ramparts as well but couldn’t get a good photo from afar.
Biggest takeaway from the day however was a very supportive rain crust above 1900m below the top 10cm of fresh from last night and this morning. Only heard one (massive) whumpf and settlement making our way across the gentle alpine slopes. Nice to not have to wallow in facets for a change!
charlieschubert96,
Friday 28th March, 2025 11:00AM
Sunshine study plot
Sunshine study plot from March 28
stephen.holeczi,
Thursday 27th March, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Bow Summit snowpack
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Thursday 27th March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Mount St. Piran avalanche
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 3:00PM
Peyto Hut Approach
The first slope greater than 30 degrees that our group encountered on the approach to the Peyto Hut slid to the ground (SS-AS-R2-D1). Rapid warming after a snowy and cloudy morning made for lots of natural avalanches in the mountains surrounding Peyto Lake. Significant whumpfing and sudden collapses were experienced on flat terrain throughout the day.
tomjpayne,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 8:45AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Bow Hut approach info
Parks Canada Visitor Safety staff were in the Bow Lake area on Tuesday to try and capture aerial images of the avalanche activity on the approach to Bow Hut. The visibility did not cooperate at the upper elevations, however, we were able to look at the avalanche activity lower down.
The attached image shows approximately what slid above the trees on the standard approach to Bow Canyon with debris covering the upper part of the regular up track. This size 2 avalanche occurred about 10 days ago failing on the late January facet layer.
Not everything above the regular up track had avalanched, so we put in a track that gave the parts that hadn’t slid a wide berth. We had lots of whumpfing even on an existing up track. We did not travel beyond the entrance to the Bow Canyon.
The one good thing is that snow coverage across the gravel flats is way better than before the big storm from 10+ days ago.
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 11:30AM
Bow Lake Shenanigans
Left the parking lot around 9am and headed towards Bow hut for a little getaway. We were optimistic about making it to our destination but knew full well that we would probably be turned around.
Started noticing signs of instability at the end of the lake as we experienced large areas of settlement creating massive whumps. We continued forward through the gravel flats experiencing more whumping and noticed old avalanche activity from the storm a week prior. These avalanches had been released in shallow rocky areas that propagated quite far.
Decided to enter the canyon as old avalanches had cleared lots of the overhead hazard and stopped for lunch just on the other side. At this point we all felt a little uneasy about the trail ahead as the terrain became more complex and more consequential.
Before turning around we had dug a pit just to see why the snow pack was so sketch. At 2050m we had a HST of 110cm about 60cm of new firm snow and below that 50cm of facets to the ground. If something were to slide it would be BIG. Failed at 21 taps but in retrospect there was no angle to the slope we preformed it on.
Thanks for reading and stay safe out there folks!
nscrupa02,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Molar Mdws
~ 11:00 at trailhead: -4, light winds, & occasional light snow
~ 1:15 pm: gentle slope, NW aspect, 2200m: -1, wind variable in speed and direction. HS 145 cm, Ski Pen ~15 cm, Boot Pen 35 cm. Snow moist. Could feel a resistant layer 60 cm down followed by variable resistant layers btw 60-80 cm down. Rather disconcerting was being able to simply let go of the probe after 80 cms and without any pushing, holding or guiding it simply dropped and fell through the remaining 65 cm of snow to the ground on its own.
No whumpfing, settling or cracking observed.
Snow skied well, though a bit heavy.
Below ~ 1950m skis sometimes sank through to the ground if off beaten track.
Afternoon: more intermittent light snow; W winds picked up; some snow bombs; some wind transport visible in the alpine.
~ 3:30 pm: +1 temp back at car
intothineyre,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 12:00PM
Healy to Simpson to SSV
Went for a walk up Healy creek to the pass and then over to Simpson pass and up to Sunshine slack to ski back in the resort. Ok snow, ski pen was about 15-20cm when breaking trail.
Dug a pit at the top of Healy pass and found snow depth of about 90cm. 30cm of 4F soft slab sitting on top of 60cm facets/sugar. Did an ECT and had failure on the second elbow tap at the facet/slab interface. Propagated halfway across the column. Redid it on the second half and again same failure.
Measured snow depth lower in the trees and found 145cm.
Snowing all day with a few cm accumulation. Wind in the alpine/TL was moderate. No significant settlements/wumpfs or recent avalanches that we could see (low vis though)
andrew.moldovan1991,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 11:00AM
Storm mountain fire break
Stuck to the mellow slopes today at highly skier compacted firebreak. No avy activity or signs of instability noted here which is what we were after!
jar3tt,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Stanley Mitchell approach
skimonster,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 12:00PM
Observation Sub Peak
Traveling up the drainage to Obersavation Sub Peak on the Icefield Parkway. We noticed an overhanging crown which likely had broken within the 24 hrs producing a large D2 avalanche below. We also noticed a collection of smaller avalanche which must have broken as a result of the over hanging crown. We did notice an older avalanche higher up on Observation Sub Peak, but we didn’t travel high enough to get an observation.
ejtalbot11,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 9:48AM
Whumpf there it is
Spooked by the spaw (and rightly so) we went super mellow with a tour into morraine lake. Passed by about 100 xc skiers today. Unmaintained last 3km to the lake we felt about 12+ whumpfs on the road with snow pack dropping around us, shooting cracks, etc. We spread out while crossing avy paths. A long safe walk.
jar3tt,
Friday 21st March, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Wall of Jericho Natural Avy
ca.loerke7,
Friday 21st March, 2025 9:34AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Crystal Ridge
Took the skis for a hike up Crystal ridge to check on conditions. With the reports of touchy conditions and wide propagations, we managed terrain carefully to keep away from steep slopes or overhead hazard.
Travel conditions pretty good, easy trail breaking with 10-20cm ski pen. Good ski quality, breakable crust forming on open solar aspects at treeline and below. Found storm snow settling into ~4F slab 40-50cm deep on top of Mar 3 crust, very weak facets beneath.
Dug test pit in open trees at 2180m on 26° SW asp. HS 110, top 10cm F, then 4F-1F slab down to 66cm where a laminated crust complex was found. Weak sugary F-4F facets and depth hoar below interspersed with the occasional crust. We did 3 compression tests to see how the new snow is bonding to the crust but every test broke after 4-12 taps at the saw in the facets below the crust instead of at the crust as we expected.
cmurrayschlitt,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Bowcrow Peak
-8 and and cool in the morning but warmed up when the sun came out and south to west aspects TL and below got moist. While skinning in undistributed areas we had some whumpfing but the snow was supportive and ski pen was never more than 25 cm but when you got out of your skis you sank to the bottom of the snow pack. Nobody was parked at bow and suspect nobody has made it into the hut recently due to avalanche conditions.
wardsbd,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 12:00PM
Pano ridge
By 1230 the snow started to get wet and heavy. On all snow with direct impact with sun.
marekseeley,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 10:40AM
Skier Remote leading to multiple sympathetic releases
chrisgranter,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 12:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Louise Slack
Went for a quick exploration towards Purple Mound but didn’t get far due to tjme. 3-5cm of new light snow on top of yesterday’s track. 20cm of ski pen when breaking trail. Measured 110cm snow depth at the pin location. Great turns in light fluffy powder.
The paths to the left of the valley didn’t go full path, but evidence of some smaller slides. Big slide on a cliff feature below purple mound.
andrew.moldovan1991,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 12:00PM
Healy Pass
dylbau11,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 10:45AM
Cirque Lake Low Angle Day
Toured from Waterfowl Lake Campground to Cirque Lake. Stayed on <20 degree slopes. experienced massive whumphing and shooting cracks. The whole snowpack would settle beneath our feet for a good 50m ahead of us. Saw recent avalanche activity on slopes above us on Cirque Lake.
mayafleury8714,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 8:30AM
Bow Canyon
Took a look, a few of the entrance slopes had slid, we stopped before the exit slot canyon slopes to discus’s turning around. 2x class 1-1.5 sympathetic avalanches happens when regrouping. The higher consequence terrain just beyond this point remains very suspect.
[email protected],
Sunday 16th March, 2025 8:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Taylor lake
sagefreeman618,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 1:00PM
Taylor lake
sagefreeman618,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 1:00PM
Crowfoot Glades skied well and provided example evidence.
Came across a very small isolated avalanche below a stand of trees. Looked to be a wind slab that was remote triggered by another skier’s up track - but that is my conclusion based on what I thought were faint shooting cracks seen as we ascended by it.
Slide looked to be a good representative of the problem in the larger forecasting area.
The rest of Crowfoot Glades skied well and we did not encounter any other signs or whumping.
Day was a mix of sun and cloud. Comfortable temperatures (below zero) and only a slight wind was felt at the high point of the moraines.
jamesreverett,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 12:00PM
Blower on Cirque Forepeak
Amazing day out at Cirque Forepeak. Ski pen was 30cm in the trees. Loose, unconsolidated blower pow sitting on soft slab. Did not break through to facets. In the low alpine the wind affect was obvious. 5-15cm loose snow sitting on a harder wind slab. Turned around before hitting any of the steeper alpine slopes, doubt it would have been good skiing. Skied up to 30 degrees on small isolated slopes without any problems or instabilities. Couple of small settlements in the bottom trees but nothing once we were breaking trail above. Snowing off and on all day with a few cm of accumulation. Sunny breaks in between. No wind down low, moderate in the alpine. Pin shows as high as we got. Snow depth was 165cm at Treeline. Sun packed a punch and afternoon snow was wet enough to stick to the skis.
andrew.moldovan1991,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 11:00AM
Large propagation
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Friday 14th March, 2025 5:00PM
Large Propagation!
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Friday 14th March, 2025 5:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche accident
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Friday 14th March, 2025 2:00PM
Healy Pass Tour
Skied up Healy Creek to Healy Pass today on the trail with 10cm of new snow. Didn't leave the trail but there were plenty of signs of recent natural avalanche activity on low angle slopes in the area. Healy Pass Peak East face slid recently as pictured.
D.A.G.85,
Friday 14th March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Storm Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025OXO/Puzzle Failed Attempt
Whumpfing and cracking abundant once breaking trail. One crack travelled over 50m to the edge of a creek and let go a small slab. We never got above treeline because conditions were far too touchy and trail breaking was far too difficult.
We viewed many several storm slab avalanches from the valley even with low visibility.
mattbest95,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Spicy on the Wapta
Tried to head up to Bow Hut. Noticed s1-3 slab avalanches on all aspects. Significant wind transport as well as cohesion in the storm slab. Low vis and still stormy. Used test slope btl and triggered s1 with large propagation. Slide propagated 50m from original trigger point with a 50-80cm crown. Now would be a good time to go climbing :)
mccutcheonj128,
Monday 10th March, 2025 11:00PM
Spicy on the Wapta
Tried to head up to Bow Hut. Noticed s1-3 slab avalanches on all aspects. Significant wind transport as well as cohesion in the storm slab. Low vis and still stormy. Used test slope btl and triggered s1 with large propagation. Slide propagated 50m from original trigger point with a 50-80cm crown. Now would be a good time to go climbing :)
mccutcheonj128,
Monday 10th March, 2025 11:00PM
Low angle day at Healy Pass
Reasonable travel in a good skin track up Healy Creek, although any deviation away from the track saw 50cm ski penetration in walk mode. Evidence of some size 2 natural slides on the Monarch Ramparts ridge with some fresh powder sitting on top. No signs of instabilities though, and some nice turns in the deep powder!
otreeves24,
Monday 10th March, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Bow Summit Study Plot
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Monday 10th March, 2025 1:00PM
Naro Shoulder
The snow pack was as supportive as your ex...
25 cm powder on top of weak sun crust on top of facets. Most turns punched into the facets and very close to ground.
sheena.lambert,
Monday 10th March, 2025 11:00AM
Michela Adrian
Attempted to skin into the Bow Hut for the first night of the Bow-Yoho traverse. In the pinch on the way up a small slide went remotely and buried one person up to their waist. Strong snow looked to have slid on an ice layer. Not much loading at all noted at the time.. We turned around. Met a group coming out who reported many large slides on the way down from the hut.
michelaadrian,
Monday 10th March, 2025 10:00AM
Hard work on the up and down
Knew to hip deep snow on the uptrack; grateful to share the trailbreaking with another group. Hard to go anywhere but straight on the down unless you were hitting a steeper pitch. Great weather all day. Witnessed several whumpfs and played it conservatively all day.
heinemann.jr,
Monday 10th March, 2025 9:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Heads up Hockey
Toured up to Gibbon Pass from Shadow Lake Lodge. Found more supportive conditions than the previous day in Pharoah Creek. Broke trail over an old track with boot top powder overlying a generally supportive base. Skied mellow west facing slopes on Little Copper (Gibbon Pass Peak) to gain the scoured ridge crest which was followed to the summit. Ski quality was good enough to justify a second lap of the treeline terrain. Plentiful whumphing made us happy to be nowhere on or under avalanche terrain. Passing through today showed a large 2.5 with sympathetic 2 releases on the Eyes of a Gypsy on the E face of “Gibbon Peak”.
stevencameronnoel,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 11:00PM
Snow storm crystal ridge
Poked around crystal ridge on Sunday, made it to about 2400m after lots of hard trail breaking. Noticeable drop in the stability of the snowpack at treeline. Whumpfing and breaking through the new snow onto the facets. At treeline hand shears revealed a clean crust under the storm snow.
heinemann.jr,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 12:30PM
Goats Eye Study Plot
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 12:00PM
Difficult travel near Linda Lake
Attempted to go for an exploratory walk up the valley above Linda Lake. We turned around at the lake due to difficult travel conditions once we stepped off established trails. A heavy layer sits above sugary facets. The heavy snow supported about half our weight before collapsing into the facets. The result was that each step felt like two.
The lake had about 15cm of snow above 15cm of slush/water.
Mike M,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 10:00AM
Chickadee Valley
Rapid accumulation throughout all of Sunday. Came across a natural size 2 slide on a south facing slope in the bowl between Chimney S1 and Chickadee peak. Many signs of instability and the difficulty of trail breaking led us to turn around at the bowl.
scottc303,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 8:00AM
Here There Be Facets
Skinned over Healy Pass then fought our way downhill through bottomless facets to Pharoah Creek. Fought through abysmal breakable crusts over facets trenching to almost waist deep in places. Eventually picked up an an old skin track on the Pharoah Creek Trail and followed it with less difficulty to Shadow Lake Lodge. Visibility was poor but we assumed a widespread cycle was on in the alpine.
stevencameronnoel,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 11:00PM
Crowfoot Glades
When we drove on the road, we quickly realized that there was way more snow than forecasted. We decided to be even more conservative.
Temperatures were very consistent around -2 all afternoon.
It was SNOWING and we needed it! We decided to dig a pit and here is what we found:
Snowpack:
-Bottom to 80cm was pure facets.
-Various crusts between 80 to 95cm.
-Pow from 95 to 175cm (fluffier as you got up).
We decided to do ECTP. Here is the results:
-ECTP2 at 145cm (storm slab)
-ECTP13 at 85cm (persistant slab)
Very fun and insightful day out!
martingarneau,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 11:00PM
Skier accidental size 2.5 on the Dolomite Traverse
Parks Canada Visitor Safety,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 1:00PM
Tree line lap
Was punching through the crust on every turn. Heard a large avalanche across the valley but couldn’t see it with the low cloud layer.
haeden.ford,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 7:00AM
Jimmy jr
Witness 3 class 0.5-1 avalanches release in a sun effected area when we where eating lunch.
haeden.ford,
Friday 7th March, 2025 8:00AM
Flower / Bow Summit
Backed off flower couloir after punching through a variable wind slab. +Shooting cracks up to 2-3m wide at the bottom of Dogleg with blocks of up to 40-50cm, PWL.
Old avalanche debris was surprisingly easy to punch through as well.
info,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 11:00PM
Bow Summit
Surprisingly great skiing today!
carleeading,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 12:00PM