Kananaskis
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Dog leg slide path
avalanche.safety,
Thursday 27th March, 2025 3:00AM
Dog leg slide path
avalanche.safety,
Thursday 27th March, 2025 3:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Snowpack test in roadside meadow near Black Prince trailhead
bruce.jamieson,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 10:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Miners Gully Test
DISCLAIMER: Not very experienced digging snow pits or examining layers
Hiked up Ha Ling on Saturday to do some research on the Miners Gully line. Did not bring skis. Just hiked up and down the day hiking trail. Lowered into the line around 5-10 meters to dig a pit and see how things are looking while on a rope.
Top 15cms are a very reactive slab. Next 60cms would pop as well with some convincing. Bottom portion of the snow pack, 90cm plus, is all very sugary snow. Did not leave with confidence!
Decently large cornice has formed over the entrance to this line. We dug away at most of it and threw the snow boulders into the line seeing how the snow would react, nothing reacted.
Very windy at the top while we were there and snowing slightly.
kearlscott2,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 11:00AM
Buller mountain, size big
guillaume.ledall,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 1:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Deep Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 17th, 2025Hogarth Lakes
R.Kuhnlein,
Monday 17th March, 2025 11:15AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 16th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Engadine Burn test pit
Found great skiing lapping low angled burnt trees, 25-30cm of powder on top of a widespread supportive crust on sunny aspects. Good coverage in the burn, we stuck to sunny slopes as snowpack was unsupportive in shaded areas below treeline due to lack of crust.
Dug test pit at 2175m, HS 85, ECTX results.
cmurrayschlitt,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 3:00PM
A walk in the woods (with instabilities) .
We did Chester Lake with a group of 8, with the goal to stick to very low angle terrain while hopefully observe signs of instabilities at some point with the team. We were eating lunch at the lake and I started to bounce on the snow, when a noticable whumpf, released and everyone dropped a bit. So we explored the instabilities around the lake. In one area a shooting crack went 10+ m to the steam edge and large slabs cracked off and slid down in to the creek bottom.
It was an excellent day of learning on zero consequence terrain, and a rare chance to see such tangible, immediate evidence of the problems in the forecast for a new group.
recrd,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 11:00AM
A walk in the woods (with instabilities) .
We did Chester Lake with a group of 8, with the goal to stick to very low angle terrain while hopefully observe signs of instabilities at some point with the team. We were eating lunch at the lake and I started to bounce on the snow, when a noticable whumpf, released and everyone dropped a bit. So we explored the instabilities around the lake. In one area a shooting crack went 10+ m to the steam edge and large slabs cracked off and slid down in to the creek bottom.
It was an excellent day of learning on zero consequence terrain, and a rare chance to see such tangible, immediate evidence of the problems in the forecast for a new group.
recrd,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 11:00AM
Little Prince Skiing
Really great riding conditions. Forecast accurate, very weak layer persistent slab on facets, but snow on top was more consolidated and good to ride on. We stuck to denser trees and had no issues. Avoided open slopes.
Picture with red line was a crown from something that must have slid the week before. Lots of debris on the lake.
patrickjdwyerjr,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 9:30AM
Engadine Burnt Trees
Probed down to 125cm at 2,800m
Lots of whumpfing.
Skied open burnt trees, lots of powder, but felt the March crust under foot at times. When making new tracks, stepped through both the March and Jan 30th crust at times.
CM10,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 14th, 2025Avalanche Accident
avalanche.safety,
Friday 14th March, 2025 3:00PM
Tryst Size 2
Formofrocket,
Friday 14th March, 2025 12:00PM
Chester Lake Observation
We didn’t ski any slopes today, outside of the skin up/ski out. The sun felt especially warm when it came out of the clouds. It’s definitely warm out there. Also, I was surprised by how much more fresh snow there was from yesterday. Looks like there was more avalanche activity on Chester, but sure when it took place.
m.k.ambro,
Friday 14th March, 2025 9:30AM
Skier accidental/remote- black prince area
We were climbing the ridge and went to far out onto a sun exposed slope. Remote triggered sz 1 while placing a kick turn and sinking into facets. A loud whoomf and settlement occurred just before it released. We retreated back to the ridge
johnacheson99,
Friday 14th March, 2025 9:09AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 13th, 2025Chester lake
wardsbd,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 1:00PM
Tryst Chutes
Lapped the chutes today, we experienced stormy conditions, strong gusts of wind, and light snowfall throughout the day (~5cm). Storm slab was present and reactive, particularly on wind-loaded aspects. Persistent layer is tricky and can still be found easily in steeper terrain. Visibility was limited at times but we observed several old avalanches from the past few days, indicating recent instability. Continued loading from the storm is adding stress to the snowpack, and avalanche hazard remains elevated. Careful route selection and stability assessments recommended.
Jacob St Amand,
Thursday 13th March, 2025 8:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 12th, 2025Kananaskis Lakes, Hot and Heavy
A bit of greenhousing and solar input made the south aspects go wet and heavy. The polar aspects below 2400m were just below zero and started to feel heavy. Observered several natural wet loose avalanches to size 1.5 out steep high alpine SW slopes mostly in the Opal range.
Breaking trail below 2200m on NE aspect was very tough as you would sink through the 70cm of storm snow in to facets below. Experienced lots of setlements and whumpfing on this layer. Easy trail breaking on the south aspects.
wardsbd,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 2:00PM
ECTs beside Mud Lake, Kananaskis
bruce.jamieson,
Wednesday 12th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 11th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 10th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 9th, 2025Remote Trigger N Aspect
MWerner,
Sunday 9th March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs, Loose Dry.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 8th, 2025Dogleg area
m_lab,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 10:00AM
Wind wind and more wind
Super windy at an attempt at Birdwood Traverse. We were sick of the wind and didn’t have high hopes for coverage in the commonwealth valley so bailed at the Col. larger group continued on.
South facing slopes at burstall were absolutely bullet proof ice crust with a range of 0 cm to 20+ of windslab on top. Highly recommend ski crampons for anything south facing after seeing that, can’t imagine much good skiing unless north facing. Snowing horizontally and heavily when we left around noon, no snow at car.
bdpiche,
Saturday 8th March, 2025 8:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 7th, 2025French-Haig-Robertson
Skied the French-Haig-Robertson traverse in nice sunny weather.
We started the day with low expectations for coverage on the glaciers and an assessment mindset and were pleasantly surprised by the conditions. Looked like no one had been there before us since the last storm, we broke trail the whole way once above treeline, finding 10-25cm of new unconsolidated soft snow on top of old supportive crusts or wind affect.
Average snow depth on the glacier was ~150-200cm on the French and ~280cm on the Haig, though we stayed only on the North side of the glacier following the direct route to the Robertson. On the Robertson, we stuck to the far East side of the glacier where coverage was ~280cm on the upper steep pitch. We let great skiing pull us further skiers left than intended and found snow depth much thinner there. Promptly traversed back out to the right side where coverage was much better. Ski quality was excellent on the Robertson with 30cm of unconsolidated powder showing no signs of wind effect or slabbing.
We observed 3 avalanches in motion and tons of debris from the last cycle. Two loose avalanches out of steep solar terrain during peak solar warming around 1400hrs on the headwall south of the Robertson-Douglas Col. One natural sz 1 starting from steep rocky terrain (see pictures), and a loose sz 1 running 50m on the Mar 2 crust initiated by skier while skinning up the headwall. The last avalanche we saw was a surprisingly large natural sz 2 on the East side of Whistling Rock peak that ran all the way to valley bottom with the powder cloud, and possibly debris covering the ski track around 1630hrs. We suspect cornice triggered windslab that stepped down to PWL in the open slopes below.
We also noticed multiple sz 2 crownlines and debris deposits on the east face of Mt Burstall, some stepping down to ground (see pictures), as well as countless old loose avalanches out of steep cliffs.
Overall, a great day out with surprisingly good skiing. Though we wished we had started earlier to avoid exposing ourselves to the headwall during the heat of the day.
cmurrayschlitt,
Thursday 6th March, 2025 2:01PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 5th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 4th, 2025Black Prince
Whumpfing easily noted above 2100m. Turned around and went down mellow slope less than 30 degrees.
Dug a pit on a SE aspect at 2150m. 32 degree slope. 10cm fresh snow. Top 30cm well consolidated then weak facets to ground. 75cm depth at this spot. Difficult to even saw through a 3cm icy crust down 20cm. CTM12 SP down 30cm
Snowpack felt much more consolidated below 2100m though we didn't dig a second pit. Difficult to turn as it was easy to break through the crust 20-30cm down once below 2000m. Very light skiers able to stay above crust some of the time. Heavier skiers constantly breaking through below 2000m
carleeading,
Tuesday 4th March, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 2nd, 2025Storm slab skier accidental
darren.vonk,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 6:00PM
Commonwealth turnaround
Turned around on the commonwealth traverse when we were approaching the avalanche path crossing near the pass (~2250m). Our group was discussing conditions as we approached the path, the leader noticed shooting cracks out front. At the same time 5 meters below another member took a very light step outside the skin track to feel the snow changes and had a whumpf. We decided after these signs plus the earlier result from a rough pit, to back off and ski down through the mature trees. During the decent, one member experience another whumpf when a slight shift downhill. In summary, a number of instability indicators and lots of wind moving snow.
templecprice,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 12:15PM
Indefatigable - touchy
Skied up the south rib lots of whumfing and shooting cracks the whole way up mostly on a plasticy crust with moist facets below. At treeline the settlement area would be 10m by 10m with one settlement area being 20m by 30m.
Observed a set of sympathetic triggered avalaches out of steep East alpine 2x size 2 plus a size 1.5 natural wind slabs.
There was on old size 1.5 loose wet from the last couple days down the main SE path exit. 150m long by 5m wide 20-50cm deep.
Decide not to ski the first North aspects, inspite of skiing it twice this year, as it was 40cm soft slab over loose(Fist) facets. We were getting easy compression tests on this layer(CTE 3 Sudden collapse down 42cm).
Decent skiing on the old bed surface. Solar aspects where the facets are bridge by a crust felt safer. Had lots of shooting crasts down the creek bed exit.
Snow was heavy on the exit below 1900m.
wardsbd,
Sunday 23rd February, 2025 12:00PM
Heros
Windy day on heros loop. Handful of size 0.5 avalanches that seemed to have been from the past 24h, in areas subject to wind deposit. One large settlement as we approached treeline. I've never seen a settlement produce a poof of powder around it's edges...
Terrible ski quality down from the col, with moguls.
Photos of Purple and Black Prince cold.
Mike M,
Saturday 22nd February, 2025 9:30AM
Rawson Lake
Skied the more east facing glades, the midpack was weaker than on SE slopes. Strong winds and warm temperatures all day. We found extensive wind slab, sun crust and temperature slab over facets that made for poor skiing.
wardsbd,
Friday 21st February, 2025 11:00PM
Rawson Lake
Skied the more east facing glades, the midpack was weaker than on SE slopes. Strong winds and warm temperatures all day. We found extensive wind slab, sun crust and temperature slab over facets that made for poor skiing.
wardsbd,
Friday 21st February, 2025 11:00PM
Warspite II
As noted by the other MIN for this area today, HS 100cm at 2100m NW aspect. Sheltered location. 32 degrees slope. Facets top to bottom, ranging from 0.5mm to 2mm. No results on a CT. Remnants of a crust down 60cm. PF 80cm. wind crust on the surface at TL and ALP.
Fun fact: same location mid Feb 2024, I recorded HS 107cm.
sfluker,
Friday 21st February, 2025 1:00PM
Warspite
Alpine was wind slab and the approach was tracked out. Height of snow was 100cm at 2200m. Windy with strong turbulent winds. No new snow yet, +3 in the parking lot, below freezing higher up.
wardsbd,
Friday 21st February, 2025 12:00PM
Hero’s Knob
Beautiful day on Hero’s knob. Started off at -24 at the car around 8am and temps rose to around -6 by 11am when we reached the top. We noted some dry loose activity on steeper, east facing aspects that looked to be somewhat recent. South facing alpine slopes were also starting to get a bit wind affected in that area as well.
On the north aspect that we skied we noted relatively little wind affect in the alpine with the snow being soft and unconsolidated. Lower down on sweet 16 we noticed some wind affect and a thin wind skin on the surface.
riley.ager,
Wednesday 19th February, 2025 10:00AM
Hero’s
Quick pit at 2200m on the uptrack to sweet 16. Protected feature at TL east aspect. CTV SP on Jan 30 crust layer down 25cm. PF 25 on the Jan 30 crust at this location. The Jan 30 interface seems likely to be a problem if (when) the currently low density top 25cm gets more wind affected. Similar results to MIN report in this region Feb 16.
Variable surface thin windslab observed at TL and ALP today. Sweet 16 exceeded expectations.
sfluker,
Monday 17th February, 2025 1:00PM
Hero’s knob
Significant temp rise during the day from -18 to -5. The solar radiation was really obvious up near the col.
kyle381,
Monday 17th February, 2025 12:00AM
South Face below Blacksmith Ridge Turn Around
l.k.caruth,
Sunday 16th February, 2025 5:00PM
Nomad Area
The approach road was a little overgrown for the amount of snow down low. Solar aspects were enjoyable dust on crust above 2150m. The snow was semi-supportive below this but skiable. Polar aspects were quite faceted. Skied North facing chute and triggered a facetlanche that entrained some midpack maybe a size 0.5. skinning up polar aspect protected trees had trail breaking that was boot top to mid thigh. Felt like in steep 38 degree trees that we could almost tip the snow pack off in A facet slough.
Mostly calm winds and high of -8C. Some loose dry alanche off steep cliffs but not involving any mass.
wardsbd,
Sunday 16th February, 2025 2:00PM
Wind Scouwered Smut
Conditions approaching Smut/Smutwood Pass are highly variable. Strong winds have created a 10 cm thick, concrete-like wind slab beneath 5 cm of fresh snow, with a grainy, faceted snow layer below. No whumpfing or cracking was observed during our ascent, but due to the significant amount of wind-affected snow, we turned back before reaching the pass.
Skiing was challenging, with frequent transitions between wind-affected and non-wind-affected areas. The wind slab was extremely firm and nearly impenetrable while skiing. We observed no serious signs of instability and conditions improved as we reached lower elevations.
domobad94,
Sunday 16th February, 2025 11:00AM
Warspite Treeline Profile
avalanche.safety,
Friday 14th February, 2025 2:00PM
Murray in a Hurry
A brisk -26C to start the day but temps averaged around -15. The south aspect on Mt Cegnfs was 15 cm of settle pow on a smooth temp/ sun crust. The standard up track on the ridge was mostly wind slab. The lower part of the drainage/ Avi path had unpredictable hard wind slab to soft wind slab to faceted pow. Exit drainage was unsupportive facets and lots of bush bashing and falling into creek holes.
wardsbd,
Sunday 9th February, 2025 2:00PM
Murray in a Hurry
A brisk -26C to start the day but temps averaged around -15. The south aspect on Mt Cegnfs was 15 cm of settle pow on a smooth temp/ sun crust. The standard up track on the ridge was mostly wind slab. The lower part of the drainage/ Avi path had unpredictable hard wind slab to soft wind slab to faceted pow. Exit drainage was unsupportive facets and lots of bush bashing and falling into creek holes.
wardsbd,
Sunday 9th February, 2025 2:00PM
Rawson lake
Solar aspects had 20 cm faceted powder on the old sun crust. Found thin stuborn wind slabs on the top 30m of the SE slopes. Lots of spindrift avalanches off Sarrial all day with one powder cloud going down well into the fan. Temps ranged from -15 to -11. Finished the day with snow squalls.
wardsbd,
Saturday 8th February, 2025 1:00PM
Engadine Burn
The snowpack at treeline consists of facets, the Jan 30th crust and 20-30cms of rapidly faceting snow on the top. The Jan 30th crust was not present in all locations, however where it was, we witnessed very poor bonding between it and the newer snow from this previous week. A series of quick hand pits resulted in failure of the Jan 30th crust where it was present. In one pit the crust failed before the column was fully cut out.
kipfertaylor,
Saturday 8th February, 2025 12:00AM
Hero's Knob/Sweet Sixteen
Busy day in Hero's Knob area. -20 leaving the cars at 8:30, day overall felt quite a bit warmer than forecast, -11 by the time we got back in the afternoon.
Skiing was better than expected, 15-30cm powder on top of crust on solar aspects/dense midpack on polar aspects. Looked like some recent dry loose (~sz 1) off extreme terrain across the bowl of the ridge approach, and some older slab debris in skiiers left of Sweet Sixteen. Fairly skiied out by the end of the day.
wseah,
Friday 7th February, 2025 11:00PM
Shark
30-40cm loose storm snow does not seem to be bonding well. Rode N/NW aspect from ~2300m. Great turns until about halfway down where the crust/previous tracks became evident. 125cm HS on upper ridge. Some weak slab development on ridge and heavy sluffing on first cut that ran ~100m.
CWM ,
Thursday 6th February, 2025 12:00PM
Common Pig
There were a couple of level 1 slabs in the steep alpine. Cracking and whumps under foot a times.
We tigger a level 1 at the top of a chute that we were going to drop, so chose to reroute.
Our experience was inline with the general area repot - highly variable snow pack, but mostly seemed stable
Overall - a nice day in the mountains, but a lot of work for extremely slow snow
g4general,
Wednesday 5th February, 2025 12:00PM
Black Prince.
We found 20 to 25 cm of new snow from the last two days on a variable temp/sun crust on solar aspects. The crust over lays a very faceted snow pack. At lower elevations in the mature forest the crust was not present and had new snow on bottom facets but skied ok.
Snow didn't feel reactive on wind protected solar aspects at treeline. A few storm slaps pulled out yesterday mid storm to size 1.5. mid track on East aspects.
wardsbd,
Sunday 2nd February, 2025 12:00PM
Hero's Area
Skied the trees on the south and north sides in the drainage up to Hero's knob. Lots of fresh snow plus facets made the uptracking tiring, and low coverage made the tree skiing tricky. Even on 125 wide skis, the weak snowpack and 30+cm of powder gave knee high ski penetration, resulting in slow going on the downhill.
The new snow has not bonded well, especially on solar aspects.
As soon as we went above treeline, a member of our remote triggered a size 1 avalanche and we chose to turn around.
We witnessed very little evidence of sliding on the typical Heros knob approach, so all that new snow is waiting for a triggered release.
dapadeanu,
Sunday 2nd February, 2025 11:00AM
Engadine Burn
The burn skied mediocre… 10-20cm of fluff on top of a very hard and icy base. Skiing moguls under powder. It was also -23 all day, about 10 degrees colder than forecasted.
colinhoglund13,
Saturday 1st February, 2025 11:00PM
Reactive storm slabs at tryst
We observed several size 1-1.5 storm slab avalanches both Sc and Sa (from multiple groups) in the tryst lake chutes today. 20-40cm deep with the widest propagation around 25m in some of the more connected features. Bed surfaces varied from faceted snow, buried wind board, and skier compacted snow. Overall the new storm snow is bonding poorly to previous layers, and is slabbing up easily.
GoatGirl,
Friday 31st January, 2025 11:00PM