Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Banff Yoho Kootenay.
The hazard will gradually increase on Tuesday with new snow, wind and warmer temperatures. How much the hazard rises will depend on snow amounts and intensity of winds.
Weather Forecast
10-20 cm of new snow is forecasted by end of day Tuesday. This snow will be accompanied by mod to strong SW winds. Freezing levels will rise to 2000 m on Tuesday and then drop again for Wednesday.
Snowpack Summary
10-15 cm of new snow overlays previous surfaces which include wind effected and faceted snow and sun-crusts. The Feb 15 sun-crusts/hard slab interface is down 30-50 cm. The Jan 30th surface hoar/sun crust layer is down 40-70 cm and variable in distribution and reactivity, producing moderate sudden planar to no results in snowpack tests.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches reported on Monday.
Confidence
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
New snow and mod-strong SW winds will build new wind slabs on Tuesday. These will become easier to trigger as snow amounts increase and are forming over a variety of surfaces including old wind effect, sun crusts and facets. Some sluffing may occur.
- Be careful with wind loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and roll-overs.
- Watch for surface cracking and stiffer surface layers of snow.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, North West.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible - Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2