Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Reports of reactive wind slabs and power sluffing in steep areas. This should improve as we go into the deep freeze over the Christmas period, but may take a couple of days.
Weather Forecast
Friday's forecast is decreasing wind speed, 5cm of snow, and temperatures around -15C. Temperatures will continue to fall into the -30s over the following days.
Snowpack Summary
5-30cm over the last 2 days with strong winds have developed wind slabs at treeline and above. There is 50-70cm over the Dec 2 rain crust (exists below 2200m) but has not been observed as active yet. We are monitoring it closely. The lower snowpack is well settled but shallow areas (<100 cm) may still have a DPS issue near the ground.
Avalanche Summary
Both SSV and LL ski area report thin wind slab formation from strong winds on Thursday to size 1.5. Skiers in Kootenay found reactive wind slab to ski cutting at treeline and softer, loose dry at lower elevations that were running far and fast.
Confidence
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
New snow and strong winds have created windslabs down into treeline. Some observations of these being reactive to ski cutting on Thursday.
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South, North West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2
Loose Dry
Steep terrain in areas like Kootenay where more storm snow fell can expect this problem to continue in the short term. Slough management will be important, and climbers should be aware of areas that got more snow than expected.
- Be careful of loose dry power sluffing in steep, confined or exposed terrain.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 1.5