Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Low, Low, Low, Merry Christmas!Continue to evaluate steep alpine terrain for small wind slabs and enjoy the great start to the season!
Weather Forecast
The NW flow continues through Christmas bringing cold and stable weather with no new snow in the forecast until at least the 26th. Upper elevation winds will begin to increase late in the day on Christmas and continue through the 26th. Treeline temperatures should stay between -10 and -16'C
Snowpack Summary
A well settled snowpack with few weaknesses exists throughout the region. Some small isolated wind slabs may exist on leeward slopes in the high alpine. Below 2000m the Dec 3 layer of surface hoar remains visible and produces hard, planar test results in some areas. This weakness is strengthening. Thin snow pack areas are beginning to facet out.
Avalanche Summary
No new natural slab avalanches have been observed recently. Some sluffing has been observed in really steep terrain due to the low density surface snow.
Confidence
Due to the number and quality of field observations
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.