Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Feb 19th, 2017 4:00PM

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

snow safety, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/scond/Cond_E.asp?oID=26206&oPark=100092Enjoy the fresh snow, but make conservative terrain choices. Natural activity has slowed with the cooling temperatures, but the potential to trigger large avalanches is still very real.

Summary

Weather Forecast

Light snow in the forecast for Sunday night and Monday morning with a few more flurries over the next few days. Winds should stay in the light range and temperatures are expected to slowly decrease over the forecast period.

Snowpack Summary

10-25cm of recent storm snow with little wind effect. Minimal surface slab formation at tree line and above, but persistent problems remain with the lower half of the snow pack being weak and faceted. Cooler temperatures have helped to stabilize the snow pack below tree line but the snow pack is still generally weak and very faceted.

Avalanche Summary

Not much new avalanche activity was observed on Sunday with the exception of the new snow sluffing out of steep cliff features. There has been a lot of natural and human triggered avalanche activity over the past 5 days up to size 3. While natural activity is expected to taper off, human triggering will remain likely for some time.

Confidence

Due to the number of field observations

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

There is a thick slab over a structurally weak snowpack at all elevations. Likely areas of triggering are in thin parts of a slope at tree line and above where a failure can propagate to deeper areas and cause large avalanches.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.Use conservative route selection, choose moderate angled and supported terrain with low consequence.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: All elevations.

Likelihood

Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Wind Slabs

Winds from several days ago have created firm wind slabs which are now buried. Probe for these especially near ridge crests and in cross loaded features. These are becoming less reactive but should still be part of your decision making process.

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

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

Elevations: Alpine.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

1 - 2

Valid until: Feb 20th, 2017 4:00PM