Avalanche Forecast
Regions: Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Basal facets, crusts and depth hoar are found in many places. Use caution if you're heading into committing terrain, as it's a bit of a gamble whether you will trigger a slope, these layers are hard to predict.
Weather Forecast
The current North West flow will shift to a Westerly by Monday. This will likely bring increase cloudiness and some snow for later in the week. A gradual warming trend starting Monday will bring daytime high in the valley to the negative single digits. Ridge winds are forecasted to be strong till Wednesday.
Snowpack Summary
Pockets of wind slab linger in alpine areas. Beneath the recent 40-60 cm of storm snow, the snowpack structure is generally weak, consisting of facets and depth hoar. The Nov crust is present up to 2500m and ~30 cm up from ground. Snowpack depths at treeline range from 80-160 cm.
Avalanche Summary
No new natural avalanche activity observed or reported Sunday.
Confidence
Avalanche Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
The recent snow sits over weak facet and crust layers. As time goes on the chance of triggering is becoming less likely, but there is lots of uncertainty as to where you could trigger an avalanche and what it will take to get it moving.
- Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible
Expected Size: 2 - 3
Wind Slabs
Variable wind slab development can be found mainly in the alpine but also in some wind exposed treeline features. These are losing sensitivity to human triggering but will need a few days to settle out completely.
- Caution on open steep slopes at treeline that have been exposed to wind loading.
- Use caution in lee areas. Recent wind loading has created slabs over weaker snow.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Unlikely - Possible
Expected Size: 1 - 2