South Rockies
Avalanche Forecast
Published: Apr 28th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wet Slabs, Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 25th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 24th, 2025Er … per the forecast !
A good overnight-recovery (aka yesterday’s moist snow froze hard overnight) gave us an awesome morning trip into the Barnes area today.
We found dry snow without wind affect above 2000 m on north facing slopes, and saw widespread pinwheeling on steeper sunny slopes.
Those sun-facing slopes had a moist surface by midday, with 20 cm of soft snow over a supportive-to-boots crust. That crust was not breaking down on SE asp. (Likely was on steep full south-through-west, but not tested), but we headed home as the day warmed up.
Light SW at ridgetop, only a few clouds. HS (full snow depth) 180 cm at 2000 m.
Access on the Flathead FSR was full-snow after the first 50m, although (as you’d expect), the staging area is looking pretty farmyard !
duncan,
Thursday 24th April, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 23rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 22nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 21st, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 20th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Apr 19th, 2025All freeze no thaw
Despite the 6 degree overnight low in the valley the snow was immediately refrozen. Very hard surface crust in the open with no signs of softening at noon above 1800m even on directly south aspects. Winds were light and keeping things things cool with brief flurries. Bears are out and walked along our skin track while we were up skiing.
JIMM5,
Saturday 19th April, 2025 7:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Published: Apr 18th, 2025Spring has arrived
Skied to the end of the forest and made a few turns in sticky snow. Great snow coverage down to 1500m but then it’s dirt. Boot supportive crust above 1600m and if you time it like us you might want to walk rather than deal with the clumping. 70-90cm on a south aspect at 1800m and CT29 break down 20cm at the bottom of the met freeze layer on a north aspect.
JIMM5,
Friday 18th April, 2025 10:00AM
Hosmer sun
Sunny day skiing two steep lines in the Hosmer area. The sun exposed face was beauty corn by 9:00am, sheltered couloir offered unreal knee deep powder. No signs of instability. Snow cover was dry/patchy below 1,350m but worth the walk!
espeters10,
Friday 18th April, 2025 4:30AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 17th, 2025CrowPow®️ - Get It While Its Cold!
ALL the weathers today in the Crowsnest for our trip around to the North side of the Seven Sisters …… sunshine one minute, thrashing snow the next!
We found 20 cm of soft snow on a solid supportive crust, with no wind affect at all (yup, you heard that right, NO wind affect in the Pass !). No sign of recent avalanches, and that new 20 cm seems to be bonding well to the crust.
Sled access up the Allison Creek road is a little patchy for the first km or so, but its still “in” for at least this weekend.
Today was our last field day for this winter :-(, but forecasts are still published daily until next weekend 25/26/27 April. Thanks for an awesome season with great MIN submissions and engagement !!
xx The South Rockies Field Team.
southrockies,
Thursday 17th April, 2025 1:00PM
3 sis primo
Great great great dust on crust then corn skiing the middle sister. Saw one crown from yesterdays's storm on an east facing ridge and a couple pieces of a cornice failure likely from last week. Access is sporty but fun!
espeters10,
Thursday 17th April, 2025 4:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 16th, 2025Spring? What's "spring"?
Back into winter today up at Mear Lake. We found 10 cm of new snow (yay, fresh pow!) overlying a supportive-to-boots crust on all aspects and elevations.
The sky was overcast, with on and off snow throughout the day. Temperatures stayed below zero (- 2 at 2200 m ) keeping that crust from breaking down, and there was only light wind - so no cornice-building, or wind-loading.
With all that, we weren't surprised to see no new avalanches, nor signs of instability.
Access up Crossing Creek is very bony up to the old Sawmill site, but great after that. Thanks @ElkfordSnow for a great season, we appreciate all of the work you do for the trails!
southrockies,
Wednesday 16th April, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 15th, 2025Braaaping in Barnes
We had a great, sunny day skiing and sledding in the Corbin area. As we traveled through the terrain, we observed numerous old storm snow crown lines—likely from last week's storm—on all aspects in the alpine. We also noted several older loose wet avalanches, likely the result of the recent warm weather.
Given the heat, we expected to see some natural loose wet avalanche activity today. However, occasional cloud cover and a light southwest wind (gusting to moderate at ridgetop) helped keep the snow surface cool, and we didn’t observe any new avalanche activity.
At treeline and in the alpine, the top 10-15 cm of the snowpack was moist on almost all aspects, but the snowpack below was supportive and well consolidated.
We skied a sheltered N aspect slope, and the snow on the surface was trending moist, but still skied like cold pow (wahoo!)
It was a perfect spring day with our highest temp recorded being 9 degrees at 2000m at 15:00. The coverage on the Corbin trail network is fantastic for this time of year. We were able to park at the Corbin parking lot and sledded on snow the whole way in. Thanks to the Fernie Snowmobile Association for a great season, we appreciate everything you do!
southrockies,
Tuesday 15th April, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 14th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 13th, 2025April pow
Rode north facing terrain above 2000m, could feel the supportive crust under fresh pow, no sloughing. Lakes were still frozen.
jmbaardseth,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 7:02AM
Dust on crust served with soup.
15cm of fresh dry snow on top of a boot supportive crust, with no windy but low clouds. Snow conditions were great but visibility was not for bigger objectives. We had lots of fun skiing mellow terrain in the trees while we waited for the clouds to lift which did not happen. 170cm in the alpine at 2150m and 135 in the trees at 1750m. There is 15cm of new snow then a breakable to poles crust 30cm above a much harder layer.
JIMM5,
Sunday 13th April, 2025 5:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 12th, 2025Rowe SW Corn Harvest
Harvested a crop of corn on the SE face of Mount Rowe this morning. Didn’t summit, dropped in around 2350m, but the summit is very approachable right now for you peak baggers out there.
There was a 2-3 inch supportive crust over ~50cms of snow at 1650m at 8am. The crust remained in the range of 3 inches during the ascent and by 10am was only beginning to warm up on direct southeast aspects. Directly south aspects remained fully re-frozen with a bulletproof crust at 2300m, and only began to deteriorate below 1900m after 10am.
Timing for a 10am drop in was perfect, or if anything slightly undercooked. Skiing from 2350m to 1850m was phenomenal buttery corn, improving in quality on the slightly steeper pitches. Below 1850m the crust was breaking down with heat and with the thinner snowpack made for some survival skiing back to the road.
gwilson031,
Saturday 12th April, 2025 7:00AM
Spring time tunnel
Slide on the avy path by tunnel hut, mini slides on most of the sun affected slopes except the sunny side trees behind the huts. Must had slide around 11/12 as the prior group didn't mention it
North facing Snow pit had multiple tests fail on a layer at 45cms, and a quick check on a sunnier slope had huge variability in the layers but we didn't test them. Party ahead of said 20 cms came last night but was consulates by the time we got up (noonish) we did a conservative run with a few good powder turn and lots of variable snow
mudry,
Friday 11th April, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 11th, 202516 Km due East of Wasa lake
colin_stewart,
Friday 11th April, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 10th, 2025Corbin
Today in Corbin, we found 10 cm of new snow settled over a supportive to snowmobile/boots crust. The upper snowpack consists of several layers of melt-freeze crust that isn't breaking down (becoming soft) at upper elevations.
Below the melt-freeze crust complex, the middle of the snowpack is well consolidated. The facets in the lower snowpack are trending moist and consolidated.
There were numerous wet loose avalanches on steep solar-facing slopes with clear skies and only a light southwest wind. The high cloud that formed in the afternoon was having a greenhouse effect, and we suspect avalanche activity will continue.
southrockies,
Thursday 10th April, 2025 12:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 9th, 2025(Not) Cold Feet
Proper Spring-regime + conditions today, with rapid warming of the snowpack on solar aspects when the sun came out.
We sledded up Hartley Creek Road and then skinned up through the forest to ridgetop at 2050 m.
With limited visibility, we observed two natural storm-slab avalanches on a NE facing slope that looked to have slid in the last 24 hrs.
There were 20 cm of soft snow over the early April melt-freeze crust (which was supportive to skis down to around 1850 m). After a few glorious dry-pow turns from the top at 2050 m, by the time we reached 1950 m the surface was moist and we had lots of roller-balls moving with us as we skied an open-gladed west facing slope..
Although the staging area was down to dirt, we had snow all the way up Hartley Creek Trail. Thanks to @ferniesnowmobileassociation for great maintenance all winter, especially for plowing out the slides-onto-the-trail-above-the-lake a couple of weeks ago!
southrockies,
Wednesday 9th April, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 8th, 2025Smith !
We headed up Cummings Creek and into Smith Basin today. We saw no new avalanches, and while we did not see any “Signs Of Instability”, we did note that the cornices on the north-west, north, and north-east sides of ridges are pretty big and overhanging.
Up at Treeline elevations, there was 7 cm of fresh snow over the supportive late-March Melt-Freeze Crust, with a full snow depth (HS) of 155 cm … not crazy deep, but good enough for this time of year.
There was some snow transport on Alpine Ridges above us from SW wind, while it was only light in the sheltered basin itself.
The sky was overcast in the morning, and broken (only a few blue bits) in the afternoon, which kept the sun’s heat in check. Our high temperature was -1 at 2200 m.
Cummings Creek access is “late-season-hazards” …. on dirt out of the staging, then a thin snow / ice / rocky mix, then awesome cared-for trail (thanks @elkfordsnow !) from well before the ticket-booth.
southrockies,
Tuesday 8th April, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Cornices.
Published: Apr 7th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 6th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 5th, 2025Follow the goats
No signs of instability. We followed the goat trails along the ridge to a north facing slope and found 35cm of very nice snow on top of a hard crust. Surface hoar on north aspects and in the trees made for some nice sounding turns. South aspects were very hard in the morning and fun at noon.
JIMM5,
Saturday 5th April, 2025 6:00AM
Breakable Crust Three Sisters
Great supportive bullet proof low down, above 2000m had a breakable crust on everything but north aspects where we found some fabulous turns in dry boottop. On the ramp we felt two large settlements and one booting the summit ridge. Likely fresh wind slabs loaded from the north. We did not see any other signs of instability.
Sadly, we had to ski out before the corn formed. Definitely good farming out there!
espeters10,
Saturday 5th April, 2025 4:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Cornices.
Published: Apr 4th, 2025Bluebird pow day...uhhh YES PLEASE
Today, it felt like winter had returned to the Crowsnest Pass. The morning temperature at the Atlas staging area was -11°C, with 15 cm of new snow in the parking lot. The day warmed up quickly, and throughout the day, the only avalanche activity we observed was a few loose wet avalanches in steep, solar areas.
We dug a pit at 2300 m in the alpine on a south-facing slope. The snowpack consisted of 15 cm of soft storm snow on top of a 35 cm hard melt-freeze crust. Below the crust, we found a consolidated layer of facets (the January Drought layer) extending down to the ground. The crust was supportive to both skiers and snowmobilers.
The weather was pretty much bluebird all day long, with strong solar effect, warming things up quickly in the afternoon. The morning was calm, with light winds from the northeast developing in the afternoon.
The skiing and sledding conditions were excellent. For those of us not ready for winter to end (us!), it was a perfect winter-y refresh before this weekend’s warm-up.
The CrowSnow Riders have done a great job of maintaining the trails. There is excellent coverage right from the staging area.
southrockies,
Friday 4th April, 2025 12:00PM
Rockies
Last weeks avi cycle created a lot of obstacles to ski around but where it hadn’t slid 15cm of dry snow overlaid the rain and temperature crust at 2000m+ and skied very well. A cold morning today permitted good travel. Sun was intense by late morning.
AMcLeod,
Friday 4th April, 2025 11:00AM
Spring Powder Turns on Mt Ward
A great day of skiing on Mt Ward. Up to 40cm over the April 2nd Crust. This old crust is up to 20cm thick, even on polar aspects. Some evidence of recent dry loose during the storm but no slab characteristics to be found. The wind was picking up at ridgecrest in the afternoon and beginning to transport some snow. Overall great conditions, N slopes are on in the CNP!!!
lgurba,
Thursday 3rd April, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 3rd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Apr 2nd, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Wind Slabs.
Published: Apr 2nd, 2025Ridge 2000
Ridge 2000 was not bad today about 8 cm of wind affected snow over a rain crust above 1550 m. Non consolidated and edgable kinda chalky at but fun. Below 1550 to about 1200 hot pow with some corn turns in the last pitch before the traverse back to the resort. Skinning was enjoyable once on the ridge. Lots of surface hoar in protected areas on the ridge. There is glide crack above the traverse in fishbowl that got me moving faster and the north part of the traverse is totally covered in basketball size avy debris. Photo from liverwurst shows some significant recent avalanches.
rwyovi,
Wednesday 2nd April, 2025 10:31AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Apr 1st, 2025It's complicated....
Today, the temperature in the Crown Mountain area was +6°C with sunny conditions. Below treeline, there was a significant lack of snow, which required us to drive quite a distance before reaching a suitable staging area.
At 2100 m on a NE aspect, we dug a pit down to ground and found moist snow top to bottom. We identified the persistent weak layer (PWL) at a depth of 90 cm. Above this layer, there is nearly 100 cm of dense, well-consolidated snow, meaning it would likely take a large load (cornice fall?) to trigger it. As a precaution, we're avoiding areas with thin-to-thick snowpack transitions and shallow, rocky terrain.
Throughout the day, we had intermittent cloud cover, but when the sun poked out, it packed a punch. We also observed evidence of a large natural avalanche cycle over the past week, with many avalanche paths already having released.
southrockies,
Tuesday 1st April, 2025 3:00PM
Darlenes
Rode alpine terrain today, NE aspect with some cloud cover meant we noticed little sun affect. 15cm of new snow on a 15cm melt freeze crust. No result on ECT. Evidence of widespread loose wet cycle, and also signs of large slab avalanches prior to this.
oliverhughes2212,
Tuesday 1st April, 2025 12:30PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 31st, 2025Tecumseh Rush Hour
No signs of instability, but evidence of a widespread natural cycle from Sunday on all aspects in extreme terrain. About 20cm on top of the March crust that is now very hard. Supportive to single boot jumping and kicking. The new snow is unconsolidated and seems to be bonding well to the crust. Medium effort hand shear results on a thin layer 2cm above the crust, but couldn’t pick up the slab of snow after. There is a suncrust on all most aspects other the North. Great now for skiing and traveling on. No wind today or evidence of wind.
JIMM5,
Monday 31st March, 2025 10:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Loose Wet, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 30th, 2025Gagne-basin
We travelled between 1800m and 2400m. Not a sufficient overnight freeze in this area. We found an unsupportive crust which started to improve at 2200m. Whumpfs and/or shooting cracks occurred on all aspects and elevations we travelled. All aspects in this area had recently slid with varying crown depths.
Of note Lussier and White-Coyote Ridge FSR have decent 4x4 travel currently.
drijber,
Sunday 30th March, 2025 10:15AM
Deep fractures & shady stellars
Observed a couple big hard slabs that had failed on N and NE aspects from last weeks big warm up.
Felt settlements on S aspects as the solar radiation broke down the crust. Skiied fresh powder on northerly slopes with no reactivity other than sluffing in the steeps.
dzskiz,
Saturday 29th March, 2025 11:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 29th, 2025Crunchy but fun!
No signs of instability. Hard 5cm boot supportive crust above 1650m on all aspects. Could have used ski crampons but ended up boot packing easily to the top. Skiing was fun with the 10cm of snow but still loud. We saw an old avalanche from the probably Wednesday that released on a north aspect and ran to ground and across the skin track. Covered it with 2-3m of snow. Interesting to see it there as we expected it would’ve released.
JIMM5,
Saturday 29th March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 28th, 2025Not Good
Tunnel Creek was wet and sloppy today below 1600 m, above this elevation we found a new surface crust that was already breaking down by early afternoon. We chose not to ski due to the very poor conditions.
Light precipitation fell on and off throughout the day, but with temperatures generally being above zero it was melting as it landed on the surface.
More new snow is needed before the skiing will be decent again.
southrockies,
Friday 28th March, 2025 2:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 27th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices.
Published: Mar 26th, 2025Hot and Sunny
Today we decided to avoid travelling in avalanche terrain and instead find a safe place to sit back and watch the action. We observed numerous wet loose avalanches in the Window Mountain area as well as a few slab avalanches up to size 2.5 on the ride out. The trail is still in great shape.
During the drive back to Fernie we saw numerous fresh slab avalanches in the Lizard Range. These avalanches were very large and had run far below treeline.
Today was a good day to enjoy the sun and non-avalanche terrain.
southrockies,
Wednesday 26th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Cornices, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 25th, 2025When life gives you rain, ride Coal Creek (or maybe not...)
Today we headed up Coal Creek to assess the impact of the rain and elevated freezing level. It rained all morning, saturating what little remains of the snowpack at lower elevations. The first few km of the trail is mostly bare ground. At 2200 m we got an air temperature of 2.5 °C, the upper snowpack was moist and settling rapidly at this elevation.
We observed some cornices that likely failed during the storm Sunday night/Monday morning. However, there are still plenty of large, overhanging cornices left out there.
The riding quality was poor, and combined with the elevated avalanche hazard, there is no good reason to venture into avalanche terrain currently.
southrockies,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 3:00PM
Mc Dermot Avalanches
giasson.william,
Tuesday 25th March, 2025 12:00PM
Thunder Meadows snowpack
carleeading,
Monday 24th March, 2025 6:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet, Wind Slabs.
Published: Mar 24th, 2025Skiing North facing aspects of Forum Ridge
Fantastic powder skiing on the north facing cutblock and treed slopes of Forum Ridge. Dug an ECT pit at 1870m on a 25 degree slope facing due north near the top of the major burn area. Snow depth 2 meters. Results: ECT-X. Able to finally release the entire test block on the freeze/thaw crust at 85 cm after REALLY reefing and pulling very hard on the shovel at the back of the test block. No whumping or cracking while skinning up or skiing down. Tomorrow a major warming trend and possible rain will obviously change things.....
bradloveskitties,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 7:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 23rd, 2025Nitta Peak
Travel was between 1450m and 2650m. Down low was an unsupportive crust to facets which improved quickly with some elevation. Crown lines visible in steep N to E aspects at tree line and alpine. Some wet slides had occurred on steep rocky S aspects in alpine. Visibility decreased with elevation. Lots of wind effect on all aspects in alpine.
drijber,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 9:15AM
Windy Syncline lap
Day was pretty winding, shooting cracks and wind loading were observed on lee aspects as forecasted. No recent avalanche activity was observed. Rode S aspects in treed and semi-treed areas. No signs of instability.
graybruce5,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 9:01AM
Thunder Meadows March 23-26
March 23
Avy report: 221 Temp: -5 to -3 overcast
Skinned up the safest approach through cabin bowl. A previous well set skin track was mostly visible and usable for much of it, just covered by a few cm of fresh snow. Decent visibility until the last 100m elevation gain.
March 24
Avy report: 332 Temp: 0? Overcast and snowing in morning then sunny and hot later afternoon
Skinned up towards big steep planning to ski the west facing glades. There was an avalanche noted on the north aspect of big steep. At the ridge it was windy and west facing slopes were icy so we turned around and did a lap I. The South facing slope right outside the hut. Great skiing here and half of our group stayed on this side doing short mellow laps.
No whumpfing/cracking. Snow felt well consolidated but more wet and heavy than yesterday. Hand sheer tests on South aspect released 30-40cm storm slab SP with moderate pulling.
Came back to the hut when the sun came out and it felt too hot.
Got the updated avy report for next days and there was a drastic increase from the expected 332 to 444. Plan was to leave early the next day but with this info we went out to dig a pit on a NW aspect close to the hut similar to what we would be skiing down. See separate snowpack MIN. Column test immediately failed SP 135mm. Absolutely will not ski be skiing down even the safest route through cabin bowl.
March 25
Avy report: 444 Temp: ? Realized the outside thermometer was broken and stuck at 0. Snow melting off trees and snowpack has sunk at least a foot.
With the anticipated warming we should have taken the conservative approach and done a day trip up to the hut and back down on the 23rd when it was 221 and great snow.
Sharing so others can also learn from our trip planning mistakes. Stay safe out there everyone!
carleeading,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 8:00AM
Needle
Long walk back to ski a lovely treed corridor near Windy Pass. The morning had lots and lots of wind from the north making it quite cold up high with a good deal of transport and fresh wind effect, both on north and south aspects. Afternoon reversed the winds with warmer temps.
Saw some healthy cornices and a massive old crown. Bit of cracking while skinning but no other signs of instability.
espeters10,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 8:00AM
Pre Slush Cup Powder Laps
Great skiing above 1800m on south and SE aspects. Some wind effect but overall great snow. We found 190cm at 2050m and 50cm above the March 2 crust. We had medium effort hand shear results down 30cm. Quite a bit of snow transport during the morning that almost filled our skin tracks in between laps.
JIMM5,
Sunday 23rd March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 22nd, 2025Avalanche
bennydb88,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 2:00PM
Koko
Lots of large natural slab avalanches in mear, stayed away from everything just enjoyed the sun and fresh pow
andrewchaudet,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 12:05PM
Not spring yet...
Oh such great snow! Got some freshness off ridge 2000, then a wet and warm skin up to the steep mother chutes (lots of wet loose off rocks and tree bombs gathering mass). The chute had seen some wind making for a stiffer but still stable ride. By 12:00 it was really cooking but still had an amazing ski out Hilda's in dry powder.
espeters10,
Saturday 22nd March, 2025 7:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 21st, 2025Cabin bowl Jaunt
On Friday morning we set off early for thunder meadows hut to stay for the weekend. The recent snow proved to be thick and slippery which slowed progress breaking trail. We topped out just below goat pass at 1750m and made the decision to call it after experiencing strong winds with gusts reaching around 70km/h. We also observed big spin drifts on the head wall above the pass as well as numerous large cornices. Our main concern was potential wind loading and warming temps over the next couple days which might affect our ski out on Sunday.
Snowpack was generally in great condition and there were no signs of instability. HST was about 60cm and produced an uneven break in hand shears and ski cuts.
We did not observe any recent avalanche activity in Cabin bowl.
Riding quality was great and we had some great turns up higher around the treeline however after descending below 1500m the snow became noticeably heavier. We avoided the major convex slopes around this area of the bowl and hugged the trees on skiers right of the drainage before descending through the steep alder field to lizard creek and exiting.
phoebestallmann98,
Friday 21st March, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 20th, 2025Conditions in Crowsnest
Great conditions in the Crowsnest Pass today. We staged at Atlas and rode past the sled cabin near Smith Creek into one of the bowl feature along the Divide.
Avalanche Summary - No new avalanche activity was observed but visibility was poor into the alpine. We suspect isolated wind slabs are building at all elevations, as new snow and previous soft snow was being redistributed by the moderate southwest wind with strong gusts.
Snowpack Summary - We dug a profile at 2050 m, treeline feature facing west. There was 200 cm of total snow depth which is at the upper end of the snowpack depths for this area.
There was 10 cm of new snow accumulated in the past 24 hours. This new snow overlies 50 cm of settled soft snow that fell last Saturday - Monday. The mid-pack is well-consolidated and sits on the January drought layer that was down 105 cm in this area. This layer is made up of facets that continue to the ground. The facets are gaining some strength and bonding together slowly.
Our snowpack tests results: Extended column test - No result, Compression Test Hard - 24, Resistant Planer, down 45 cm on a preserved stellar layer, Deep Tap Test on Jan drought Layer - No result
Weather Summary - Snowing roughly 1 cm an hour intermittently. Moderate southwest wind with strong gusts. Mild temperatures of -2.5 °C at 2000 m, mostly overcast.
southrockies,
Thursday 20th March, 2025 1:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 19th, 2025March Pow is the BEST !
Today in the Harvey area we found the most recent storm snow has settled and bonded to previous surfaces.
In this area we found the January 31st PWL (Persistent Weak Layer) down 115 cm with a consolidated mid pack above it. The layer itself is gaining some strength and becoming more consolidated than we have seen for many weeks.
We didn’t see any new avalanche activity and had no snowpack-test results
There was light southwest wind and generally cloudy skies keeping the surface snow dry, although lower elevation, steep south facing slopes were warming slightly.
The Lodgepole FSR in is a whoop-fancier's delight :-) !
southrockies,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 1:00PM
Mongolia Powder
Great riding in Mongolia Bowl. Small wet loose debris on solar aspects. Sun crust on S facing slope. Observed no significant signs of instability.
Dug a pit @1850m, N aspect, 30° slope. CTH25 on Jan PWL. ECT no propagation hitting shovel as hard as I could. Green light for pow turns!
Hunter Kirschner,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 12:00PM
Polar good, solar bad
Good riding on North aspects, crusty and challenging on south aspects. We skied below 1800m today in sheltered north facing treed shoulders. 5 cm solar crust on south aspects, and transitioning to a breakable 5-10cm wind skin above 1800m on all exposed aspects. Some sheltered chutes above 1800m may still hold good snow. Skiing quality improved the further north we moved in the range.
Height of storm averaged 60cm and was unreactive to skis, produced uneven break results in ect, ct, and hand shears. A mid storm interface was also noted 15cm down that also produced similar uneven break results in ect, ct and hand shears.
The PWL is down ~115cm at 1800m and produced no results with ect/ct tests, however continues to give a sudden clean failure when pulling on a column or hand shear.
Temps stayed below freezing above 1300m, and a cool light to moderate breeze was present all day.
samirsomji,
Wednesday 19th March, 2025 11:00AM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Wind Slabs, Persistent Slabs, Loose Wet.
Published: Mar 18th, 2025Corbin - New snow and Cornices
Today in the Corbin area we found 30 to 40 cm of accumulated storm snow from the weekend. This new snow adds to the upper snowpack over a melt-freeze crust that is down 60 cm. There were a few size 1 to 1.5 natural storm slab avalanches from steep south-facing alpine features.
We had no results in our extended column test and resistant results in the storm snow (Compression test results - CTE (RP) 6, down 20 on decomposing fragments, CTM (RP) 16 down 35 DF)
The riding was really good and supportive with a right side up upper snowpack over the crust. The storm snow is settling and with a few resistant test results, we stayed away from steep alpine terrain features.
southrockies,
Tuesday 18th March, 2025 3:00PM
Avalanche 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, 2025Avoiding the problem and finding the goods.
Skied south aspects 30 degrees and less and saw no signs of instability. The wind has not transported snow except for on high SW ridge tops and unlike most days in the CNP there was actually snow in the trees. Light to no wind, heavy snowfall at times, and 20-30cm of fresh snow made for great ski.
JIMM5,
Sunday 16th March, 2025 4:00PM
Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Avalanche Forecast
Problems: Storm Slabs, Persistent Slabs.
Published: Mar 15th, 2025Backside of Mt Fernie
Great day out behind Mt Fernie skiing NE aspect. 5-15 cm of fresh on top of crust from 1000 to 1700m. Great powder above 1700m with no concerning observations. Lots of old slide debris skinning up the Mt Fernie drainage from about 1150 to 1500 m
mayt,
Saturday 15th March, 2025 9:00AM
Avalanche 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, 2025