Avalanche forecast

Banff Yoho Kootenay

Feb 28 – Mar 1, 2013Parks Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 14 years ago

Avalanche danger

Thu
Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

We are hinging on rating the alpine low or moderate... for today and tomorrow, due to wind affect last week we just need more field data to confirm the low rating.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely - Possible
    Size
    1–2
    Recent SW winds have created fresh wind slabs, 10-30 cm thick. This layer was reactive to ski cuts today, but isolated to the immediate lee of the feature. 

Weather Forecast

Cloudy skies with a light flurries for tomorrow.  A moisture stream will start to move into the region Thursday night and into Friday, bringing warmer temperatures.  Snow amounts are uncertain and depend on the track of the system, so far the greatest amounts could be in the Wapta region where we could see 10-30 cm, stay tuned.

Snowpack Summary

West of the divide the mid-pack is generally well settled. The early January surface hoar exists down ~50 cm in some areas but is decomposing and unreactive to slope tests and compression tests. East of the divide the mid-pack is faceted. Throughout the region some fresh wind slabs up to 25 cm thick exist in the immediate lee of alpine features.

Avalanche Summary

Small 0.5 soft slabs were ski cut today in the immediate lee of features. Loose snow avalanches to size 1.5 out of steep terrain was observed yesterday.  For the past several days there have been no significant avalanches observed or reported.

Confidence

Regions covered