Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
The skiing right now is as good as it gets, even on some solar aspects, and it is a good time to look at larger objectives. Watch closely for increasing hazard as the daytime temperatures rise and enjoy the great skiing!
Weather Forecast
A mix of sun a cloud with light winds and freezing levels near 1700m ar forecast for Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday will be mostly sunny with nighttime temperatures dropping well below freezing and daytime highs up to 5`C at treeline.
Snowpack Summary
A few cms of snow overnight brings the recent storm snow to between 20-40cm at treeline in most areas. This snow is bonding well to the previous surfaces. A thin sun crust exists on steep solar aspects in some locations. The midpack is generally well settled with no major concerns. The bottom of the snow pack consists of depth hoar and facets.
Avalanche Summary
Some solar induced sluffing up to size 1.5 out of steep terrain and loose dry avalanches up to size 1 have been observed in the last 36hrs. We expect to see more avalanche activity out of steep solar aspects as the sun comes out during the next few days.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.