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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Nov 27th, 2013–Nov 28th, 2013

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Little Yoho.

Skiing prospects are not too enticing until we get more snow.  Many ice climbs are in and have pounded trails to the base of many popular climbs.

Weather Forecast

Winds will pick up to moderate SW on Thursday.  Light snow forecasted for Friday.  If the forecast is correct, the next substantial snowfall (10-15 cm) is expected on Sunday.

Snowpack Summary

On alpine lee features, the snowpack consists of windslabs over a weak midpack with a very weak base of facets. The Oct 27 crust on N-NE aspects is breaking down, but is still a sliding layer near ground. On average at treeline there is 70 cm of snow, barely blanketing the rocks and stumps.

Avalanche Summary

No new naturals in past few days. Explosive work at Sunshine and Lake Louise still producing size 1.5-2 avalanches on North and West aspects failing on basal facets or the Oct 27 crust. Propagations are not as significant as earlier in the week, but any steep windloaded feature in the Lake Louise area were producing avalanches.

Confidence

Due to the 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.