Elevated avalanche risk in Banff National Park and K Country due to heavy snowfall

Rukhsar Ali · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 7:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Mountain information officials successful Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, Kananaskis Country and a fig of different nationalist parks westbound of Calgary are putting retired warnings astir elevated avalanche risks aft caller dense snowfall.

According to Parks Canada, Banff and Jasper nationalist parks are sitting astatine a "high" avalanche hazard (Level 4) successful the alpine elevation, and astatine "considerable" risk (Level 3) successful and beneath the treeline.

Danger ratings are based connected a five-level scale, with 1 being debased hazard and 5 being extreme risk.

Banff National Park has received 30-90 centimetres of snowfall successful the past 5 days successful immoderate places — that has astir doubled the snowpack successful areas similar Bow Summit. This can mean an accrued hazard of some earthy and human-triggered avalanches.

Alex Lawson, a visitant information technician with Banff National Park, said they're advising radical to debar avalanche terrain for now.

"There is simply a opposition passim the parkland of what radical mightiness beryllium encountering for snowfall amounts," helium said. "But successful areas wherever we did person the bulk of the snow, the avalanche information is astatine each elevations."

Lawson said the caller snowfall is simply a "significant load" that's layered connected an "all-time debased snowpack," which tin trigger much problems.

In summation to seeing a important fig of earthy avalanches, Lawson said the parkland is receiving regular reports of human-triggered avalanches successful the country — immoderate straight triggered and others remotely. 

Those distant avalanches are initiated by the load of a quality connected the slopes but hap elsewhere, similar an adjacent slope.

Earlier anemic snowpack contributing to risk

According to Kananaskis Mountain Rescue, the avalanche hazard successful the portion is "considerable" successful and supra the treeline, and "moderate" below. 

Mike Koppang, upland rescue specializer for the Kananaskis region, said the caller snowfall that's present sitting connected apical of immoderate weaker snowpack layers increases the hazard of sliding.

"It's harmless to accidental this was our largest snowfall of the season," Koppang said. "We did besides spot benignant of 40-60 centimetres of snowfall here, and it fell connected a assortment of antithetic anemic layers from crusts to … immoderate weaker crystals that developed successful the cooler portion of the winter."

Weak layers wrong the snowpack are composed of snowfall crystals that are poorly bonded with the snowfall supra oregon beneath them, according to Avalanche Canada.

The fracturing of a anemic furniture tin effect successful an avalanche.

Koppang said the Kananaskis portion is seeing avalanches that are moving "full pass," starting successful the alpine done the treeline down to the vale floor.

Staying harmless connected and disconnected the slopes

These warnings aren't the archetypal of the season. About 2 weeks ago, Avalanche Canada issued a peculiar nationalist avalanche informing for astir regions successful British Columbia and occidental Alberta.

"The snowpack is anemic and it's truly susceptible to human-triggered avalanches, truthful pump the brakes, [and] enactment very, precise mellow if astatine each interacting with avalanche terrain," Koppang said.

Some information recommendations see having due avalanche information grooming and gear, travelling successful groups and ever checking forecasts and avalanche bulletins earlier heading out.

"We counsel radical to enactment retired of avalanche terrain until the snowpack tin get utilized to this load," Lawson said. "Since we've been continually getting snow, it's not healing close away. It's going to instrumentality immoderate time."

"[In] parts of our region, it mightiness beryllium weeks earlier we're backmost into a snowpack wherever we consciousness assured entering … bigger slopes and much important avalanche terrain." 

Lawson warned that portion the hazard volition apt alteration implicit the coming days, backcountry enthusiasts shouldn't go excessively assured successful the snowpack. That's due to the fact that portion the hazard of earthy avalanches volition decrease, helium warned the hazard of human-triggered avalanches won't spell away.

Koppang and Lawson urge checking avalanche.ca for much information.