Avalanche Forecast
Avalanche Bulletin - Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks
Start early to take advantage of good travel conditions and cool temperatures on Tuesday morning. We expect the hazard will rise later in the day as things warm up and the precipitation arrives.
Avalanche Problem 1: Persistent Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be cautious with convexities and steep slopes on solar aspects.
Avalanche Problem 2: Wind Slabs
What Elevation?
Which Slopes?
Chances of Avalanches?
Expected Size?
Recent new snow and moderate West winds have created wind slabs in immediate lees areas of the alpine that can be triggered by skiers in some locations. This problem may increase later in the day on Tuesday as more snow arrives.
Travel and Terrain Advice
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
Avalanche Summary
Some loose dry sluffing in the alpine due to strong wind gusts on Monday, as well as thin touchy wind slabs in immediate lee areas at local ski hills. Explosive control at Sunshine produced one size 2 wind slab. On Sunday a size 2 wind slab was observed on a NE aspect at 2600m near Lake Louise and some loose wet sluffing out of steep solar terrain.
Snowpack Summary
Moderate west winds over the past 24 hrs have created wind effect in open areas, and wind slabs in lee areas in the alpine, On solar aspects the March 15 sun crust is down 25-50 cm and has been sensitive to skier triggering over the last week. A temperature crust is present on all aspects below 2000m and higher on solar aspects.
Weather Forecast
Tuesday will start out as a mix of sun and cloud with below freezing temperatures overnight helping with travel conditions. Some precipitation is expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon with up to 5-10 cm accompanied by strong West winds and freezing levels up to 2300m. Cooler temps and slightly drier conditions with some cloud is expected Wednesday.
Avalanche Forecasts in your Inbox
Avalanche Canada has switched to an RSS feed for its daily forecasts. This is a much more flexible method that allows automatic delivery to your email inbox, or to an RSS reader of your choice.
What are RSS feeds?
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a popular standardized file format allowing up-to-date delivery of web-based content. RSS feeds enable you to receive content updates from websites, delivered to your email through an RSS aggregator (such as blogtrottr.com) or viewed through applications called RSS readers (such as feedly.com).
Set up an RSS feed for your email:
Select a RSS aggregator
- Avalanche Bulletin - Banff, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks URL:
http://www.avalanche.ca/api/forecasts/banff-yoho-kootenay.rss - Copy the url and paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS aggregator.
- Fill in your email address.
- Voila! Watch the Avalanche Canada forecast roll into your inbox.
Forecast Disclaimer
Avalanche Canada's Public Avalanche Bulletin, and other information and services provided by Avalanche Canada, are intended for personal and recreational purposes only.
**THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES RESULTING FROM DISCOMFORT, INJURY, OR DEATH, CLAIMS BY THIRD PARTIES OR FOR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS, OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.**
The user acknowledges that it is impossible to accurately predict natural events such as avalanches in every instance, and uses the data in this bulletin with this always foremost in mind. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and the Providers disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use the data.
Dig down to find and test the bond of the surface snow with the Mar 15 crust down 25-50 cm on steep solar aspects, bearing in mind that the bond can vary significantly with subtle changes in slope aspect, steepness or warming temperatures.