Crowsnest South
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Castle mountain slack country
<p>Toured into the cat ski terrain off Castle Mountain resort today. 4C with a mix of rain and snow at 1400m in the morning with strong south winds. Found the freezing level at around 1700m and topped out around 2100m. Great dust on crust skiing down to 1850m. Snow got warmer and heavier as we skied down to 1650m, with the top 5cm sliding easily on a temperature crust. Winds stayed strong from the south all day, but precip eased in the afternoon with the odd bit of blue sky by 3pm. Was nice to make use of groomed trails low down this time of year!</p>
jpulwicki,
Saturday 8th April, 2023 7:30PM
North side of haig ridge
<p>Powder felt bottomless. The top layer (6-10 cm) sluffed off incredibly easily on steeper slope angles, but skiing in tight trees made each sluff isolated/small.</p>
scott.nelson,
Tuesday 4th April, 2023 12:00PM
York Creek Avalanche
southrockies,
Saturday 25th March, 2023 3:10PM
Shallow in South Crowsnest
<p>Today we traveled to a thin snowpack area south of highway 3 in Crowsnest Pass. We found 150 cm of snow at treeline on a north-facing slope.
Probing around we found the upper snowpack is well-consolidated over a weak lower snowpack.
We didn’t see any new avalanches, It seems like the first bite of sun and warming from last week has tapered off.
The skiing was not great, variable and wind affected. The sastrugi was the best skiing! 😩
</p>
southrockies,
Tuesday 21st March, 2023 4:40PM
Lynx - Deep slab avalanche activity
<p>Two natural large avalanches were reported in this area during the warming period over the weekend. These avalanches had deep crowns that could have involved the facets at the base of the snowpack that we have not seen avalanches on in this area for some time. Areas, where this problem may be a concern, are shallow snowpack areas where the bottom snowpack is generally weak with variable depths of consolidated snow above that can be triggered by human activity. This area does not see a lot of recreational traffic and is a good reminder that sharing is caring. </p>
southrockies,
Monday 20th March, 2023 12:10PM
Occasional Flurries = Dumping !
<p>Weather forecast today called for “Sunny breaks” and Occasional flurries”. Well, we had all-day proper snowing in York Creek …. 20 cm of storm snow on the ground at 1900 m when we arrived, 30 cm by the time we headed home.
The wind has been blowing at Moderate (enough to transport snow and build cornices and wind slabs) from the SW for the last couple of days, and that continued today at ridgetop. Once again, (pattern this winter), the trick was to select lower angle sheltered terrain to avoid those wind slabs (they were definitely out there in exposed areas at Treeline and above).
It stayed cool all day, and we saw no avalanches. We did however observe signs of instability in an open glade on a North aspect at 1900 m (cracking from our skis) and were able to juuust about get a small slab to move stubbornly when we tested a little steep feature where there was no consequence.
The other trick today was keeping our A-Arms away from the stumps and rocks in the shallower snowpack at lower elevations :-(</p>
southrockies,
Friday 3rd March, 2023 6:30PM
Avalanche Incident in Syncline Valley
madeline.martin,
Monday 6th February, 2023 11:10AM
Wind slab in Crowsnest
<p>Reported to South Rockies field team. This wind slab was triggered from the ridge. Strong southwest winds in the area continue to transport snow into features directly lee of ridges and high points. The previous surface that these wind slabs are forming on is a mix of melt-freeze crust and hard wind-pressed surfaces and in some sheltered areas soft faceted snow. The cold temperatures may have been preventing the bond between these two layers and now with the warmer temperatures the slab has likely become easier to trigger. As we travel through the weekend we will continue to watch for signs of instability like shooting cracks and avoid steep terrain features where even a small avalanche could have serious consequences.
</p>
southrockies,
Friday 3rd February, 2023 12:40PM
AST 1 Castle
<p>With great visibility throughout the day, we did not see any new avalanche activity in the neighboring backcountry terrain.
The upper snowpack was 5 cm of new snow over a supportive to skis, 1 - 2 cm melt-freeze crust up to 1980 m (our top out elevation). At treeline, we did not find wind-affected snow even in open terrain features.
Throughout the day the temperatures were cool around - 4 C, with little to no wind that started to increase near the end of the day. </p>
Terrain,
Monday 23rd January, 2023 7:30AM
AST 1 Castle Mountain
ericzilinski,
Sunday 22nd January, 2023 6:50PM
A unicorn day in the Castle for an AST
<p>We were in the Castle Ski tour terrain on Haig for the day with an AST course. We found 5 cm of new snow over a breakable melt-freeze crust from the warm temperatures and precipitation on Friday. Total snow depth 155 cm. The day was warm and there was almost no wind for the whole day. The snowpack is well consolidated, especially in open areas where it is wind pressed. In the sheltered treeline and below treeline we found a softer layer sandwiched between the Dec 26 crust and the most recent crust. There was decent visibility and we saw no recent avalanches. </p>
Terrain,
Monday 16th January, 2023 2:00PM
Forget ski crampons, need skin wax.
<p>Warm ski with saturated snow. It was raining lightly at the trailhead but snowing lightly at 1850 m. Wind was very strong. Large pinwheels formed while skiing down. The largest turned into a 1.5 m large snowball that went 50 m down the slope. Snow was heavy! </p>
Farley,
Friday 13th January, 2023 5:20PM
York Creek - Crowsnest
<p>We need some snow! The warm temperatures and overnight rain saturated the top 10 cm of snow which sits on a consolidated mid and lower snowpack. The wind was the real story, it was extreme but wasn't moving any snow around because there wasn't any to move. The moist top 10 cm made the ski down okay, the bottom half of the slope was becoming mashed potato, so wax would have been nice. </p>
southrockies,
Friday 13th January, 2023 2:50PM
Syncline
<p>Snow conditions were better than expected. Recent wind loaded snow seemed to be bonded decently well to the hard crust below, and skied okay. The wind had stripped any exposed areas of soft snow, making the uptrack slippery and incredibly frustrating, bring ski crampons if ya got them. </p>
davisclement8,
Monday 9th January, 2023 3:50PM
Haig Cat Area
<p>Better than expected riding conditions, below 1650M was a supportive melt freeze crust that was a bit survival snowboarding. ridge top HS varied from 0cms to around 90cms. The NE aspect trees actually held decently soft snow, 20 cms roughly over the dec 26th rain crust</p>
James MF Richards,
Monday 9th January, 2023 1:00PM
West Castle Valley
<p>In general the skiing was better than expected over the past two days. Winds were relatively mild (moderate at times), there was trace new snow and the temperatures were generally below freezing but mild.
There was good skiing out there as the wind hasn’t blown particularly hard (averaging moderate, gusting strong) since our last storm (around Boxing Day). Today may change that… We were surprised to see how much soft snow was preserved near ridge tops, though soft snow is limited to lee or protected terrain. Strips of soft snow generally feel unconsolidated on top of the crust (formed during Boxing Day storm). It skis well but at times makes for challenging, slippery skinning.
With good visibility we saw 2 naturals, zoomed in photos included. </p>
madeline.martin,
Friday 6th January, 2023 2:30PM
conditions
<p>skied south facing slopes. snowpack was 100cm deep, ct 28, failed 20 cm from ground on facets. avoided areas where windslabs are usually present, saw no evidence of the surface hoar layer under the new snow. First run had deep heavy snow and the second had a 2" crust layer that made it very hard to ski.</p>
colesecretan,
Friday 23rd December, 2022 5:20PM
Not Windy!
<p>Not every day you can say that about the Crowsnest. Surprisingly fluffy snow and good ski quality just south of the highway. When winds pick up again we would expect some new reactive wind slabs might form in open areas. The November drought layer was not reactive in snowpack tests today but our sample size is small and we are still in assessment mode so enjoyed some turns in smaller, lower-angled terrain.
</p>
southrockies,
Wednesday 14th December, 2022 4:50PM
Driftdance
<p>SW wind hammered recent storm snow into 60cm hard slab on Nov. 10 & /or 11 Observed natural activity on this layer in immediate lee of ridge, north aspect at 1700m likely failed on Nov 10 or 11. Reactivity seems stubborn to ski traffic now with some isolated cracking observed. Protected pow in dense trees and a mix of chalky sift and varying densities of sastrugi in open areas. Nov. 4 rain crust to 1700m was keeping skis off ground initially but seems to have mostly faceted out now. Over 150cm in loaded areas at 1700m and well over 200cm in loaded areas above 2000m. Isolated pockets of surface hoar up to 10mm observed in sheltered locations on Nov. 12. No natural activity observed in the alpine. </p>
dzskiz,
Sunday 13th November, 2022 9:30AM