Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 28th, 2014 4:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Deep Persistent Slabs.

ian jackson, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

Winds and cold temperatures have created many weak areas in the alpine and treeline elevations this year. This gives us low confidence in the snowpack in bigger terrain at these elevations. Good skiing can still be found on sheltered non solar slopes

Summary

Weather Forecast

A weak front is forecast to bring up to 5 cm of snow with light winds Wednesday overnight with valley temperatures in the -5 to -10 range.Â On Thurs and Fri we will return to high pressure with sunny skies and lows in the -15 to -20 range. Likely, we will get temperature inversions (temperatures colder in the valleys than in the alpine).

Snowpack Summary

The Jan 25th surface hoar layer is buried under 5 cm of snow in the Bow Summit area, but remains on the surface in most of the forecast region. This will become a weak layer to watch in the future. Strong solar radiation has formed a suncrust on S & W facing slopes. The basal facets remain weak, but the overall snowpack is gaining strength.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed in the past several days.

Confidence

Due to the number of field observations

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

The basal facets are lying dormant for now. However, the possibility of triggering from a weak spot (thin, shallow, rocky area) remains real.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Jan 29th, 2014 4:00PM