Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 20th, 2017 4:00PM

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

snow safety, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

The long cold snap has left a weak snowpack that is not healing. Conservative route selection will be required into the foreseeable future.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Moderately cold weather with sun and flurries is forecast. While this is great for touring, it is unlikely to strengthen our weak snowpack in the short term.

Snowpack Summary

The snowpack is quite localized. 10-40 cm of storm snow (often windslab) rests on weak facets. Deeper layers of weak facets and depth hoar are common. A supportive midpack can be found, but it is often friable and may contribute to deeper failures. avalanches were reported today butLower elevations have unsupportive bottomless facets.

Avalanche Summary

Several size 2 avalanches were reported in the Banff area today. Recent reports of human involvement would indicate the need for continued caution.

Confidence

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

The midpack in most areas is weak and facetted. Any slab sitting overtop of this weakness should be considered suspect and there is a high level of uncertainty around this layer.

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

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Possible - Likely

Expected Size

2 - 3

Wind Slabs

Recent winds ranging from East to SW have created some new windslabs in alpine and treeline features. In some cases, these have been observed to provide enough weight to step down to the deep persistent layer, causing a larger avalanche.

If triggered the wind slabs may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.

Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Likely

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Jan 21st, 2017 4:00PM