Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Little Yoho.
Quite a bit of new snow has fallen at the upper elevations over the past week and at times this has been accompanied by strong winds. Use caution in steeper or larger terrain features and expect sluffing in steep terrain.
Weather Forecast
Alpine winds will start off light on Saturday and start rising later in the afternoon into the moderate range as they shift to the NW. Temperatures will remain cool with treeline values between -10 to -15 Celsius. A few flurries are expected but no significant accumulations, and there may be some sunny breaks in the afternoon.
Snowpack Summary
Over a meter of new snow has fallen at treeline in the Little Yoho region over the last week with recent winds creating wind slabs in alpine and exposed treeline lee areas. The new snow has settled into 50-80 cm of storm snow over the Feb 19 interface and seems to be bonding well in most places. Surface snow is sluffing easily in steep terrain.
Avalanche Summary
Ski hills reported some small wind slabs up to size 1.5 in lee areas of the alpine with ski cutting and explosives. No new slab avalanches have been reported or observed in the Yoho area for a couple days but sluffing up to size 1.5 in the new snow was reported on Friday. Some whumpfing was reported Thursday on a steep S aspect at treeline.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Avalanche Problems
Wind Slabs
Ongoing new snow and wind continue to create wind slabs in alpine and exposed treeline lee areas. These have been becoming more difficult to trigger but caution is still advised. Cornices have also grown quickly and should be considered suspect.
- Watch for shooting cracks or stiffer feeling snow. Avoid areas that appear wind loaded.
- Use caution in lee areas. Recent wind loading has created wind slabs.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible - Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 2.5
Loose Dry
Areas that got more snow in the past two days are seeing significant sluffing in steep terrain. In most places this can be managed with good ski cutting and sluff management techniques, but it could be a problem in confined gullies or couloirs.
- Be cautious of sluffing in steep terrain, particularly where the debris flows into terrain traps.
- On steep slopes, pull over periodically or cut into a new line to manage sluffing.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 1.5