Banff Yoho Kootenay

The first cold weather of the season is here, and ice climbing conditions are improving. Ski conditions are very marginal with only 30cm of snow on the ground at Bow Summit. The best skiing is on the Wapta, but beware of thinly bridged crevasses. GS.

A dominant ridge of high pressure has formed over BC and Alberta, which will keep skies blue and temperatures cold for the immediate future. No snow, light winds and temperature ranges from -10 to -15 can be expected for the remainder of this week.

Generally thin coverage throughout the forecast region. The Nov 9/10 storm deposited 15-25 cm of low density snow on top of a rain crust which overlies 10-20 of facetted snow on the ground. There is not yet enough snow depth for avalanches to reach the valley bottom, but alpine areas (> 2000 m) have a winter snowpack and avalanche hazard exists.

Some loose snow avalanches were reported by ice climbers on Nov 9 (during the storm).  Since that time nothing has been reported, but observations from the mountains are very limited right now with little information available.

Due to the number and quality of field observations