Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Travel and climbing conditions are excellent for ice and big alpine ascents. Ski conditions rermain challenging with breakable surface crusts or thin windslab.
Weather Forecast
Cloud and very light flurries are forecasted for the next several days. Winds will be generally light from the West with gusts up to 70 km/hr. Temperatures will be warmer than they have been, but still in the minus single digits. There are no significant inputs expected to affect the avalanche hazard.
Snowpack Summary
Despite the presence of weak facets and depth hoar near the ground, the weak layers in the snowpack are largely dormant right now. This is a result of past warming and rain, recent cold temperatures and no significant snow for several weeks. Once the temperatures warm up significantly and/or new snow arrives then the weak layers will re-activate.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches reported or observed today.
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.