Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 30th, 2014 4:00PM

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

ian jackson, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

The new snow has improved ski quality but also just barely buried many rocks. Choose conservative terrain to manage the deep basal problem inherent in this years thin, variable snowpack.

Summary

Weather Forecast

The arctic air mass is upon us once again. We can expect cold temperatures -15/-25, light north winds and sunny skies throughout the forecast period.

Snowpack Summary

Last nights 5-15cm of snow has buried the Jan 30th surface hoar / sun crust layer. This new snow came in with very little wind, so any new storm slabs are expected to be thin and soft and low consequence, however this will become a weak layer to watch in the future. The basal facets remain weak, but the overall snowpack is gaining strength.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed in the past several days.

Confidence

The weather pattern is stable

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

Although this layer has not been reactive in the last week, the potential to trigger a deep slab from a thin spot remains.

Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Jan 31st, 2014 4:00PM