Robson Helimagic

Warm temperatures are melting the surface on all but the highest north-facing slopes, creating weak surface snow during the heat of the day. Crusts may form overnight. 

 Strong solar radiation and warming will likely trigger the large cornices that hang over ridgelines. Cornice falls could trigger large avalanches on deeply buried weak layers. 

As heat penetrates deeper into the snowpack it has the potential to reactivate deeper weak layers, including a layer from mid-February and weak facets at the bottom of the snowpack. The most likely areas to be concerned about deeper weak layers are shallow parts of the region along the eastern slopes of the Rockies like Core Lodge, Wolverine, Bullmoose, Upper Burnt and perhaps around Mt. Robson. In general, steep, rocky slopes with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack are most suspect.

Numerous naturally triggered wet loose avalanches up to size 2 were reported on all aspects on Thursday.

There have been some large deep persistent slab avalanches triggered by warming to the south around Jasper and Banff, but we are uncertain whether this problem will extend into the North Rockies.

Sustained warming can increase the likelihood of large avalanches failing on deeply buried weak layers.This is most likely to occur on steep, rocky alpine slopes with a shallow or thin to thick snowpack. 

To get the complete forecast with additional graphics and details, please view the North Rockies forecast provided by Avalanche Canada.