Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 4th, 2014 4:00PM

The alpine rating is low, the treeline rating is low, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Deep Persistent Slabs.

Grant Statham, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

The drought continues. Dress super warm for any outside activities on Wednesday as we reach into the -30's. Ice climbers note: we will be doing an ice rescue practice on Rogan's Gully on Wednesday and Thursday this week, so please avoid this climb.

Summary

Weather Forecast

The cold, dry spell continues for a few more days with lows of -30 for Wednesday and light winds from the north. Slight warming to the mid teens is predicted for the later half of this week (Thurs and Fri).

Snowpack Summary

5-10 cm of recent snow sits on the January 30th surface hoar below treeline. In the alpine this recent snow is over a firm wind slab or a thick sun crust on S & W aspects. The snowpack has gained strength over the past few weeks, and snowpack tests are now producing hard results 20 cm above the ground in the facetted base layer.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches have been observed or reported.

Confidence

The weather pattern is stable

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

The snowpack has gained some strength and now combined with the cold temperatures it will be hard to trigger an avalanche on the weak layers near the base. This situation will persist until the weather pattern changes.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 3

Valid until: Feb 5th, 2014 4:00PM