Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
The cold temperatures have temporarily reduced the likelihood of avalanches, resulting in Moderate danger ratings. This should last for several days, but be wary of sunny, warm places in the afternoon. Don't stop and warm up under avalanche terrain!
Weather Forecast
An arctic ridge is stationary over our region for the remainder of the week. This means blue skies but very cold overnight lows down to the -30s and daytime highs into the -10 to -15 range. Some light snow expected for Tuesday but no accumulation, then back to crisp bluebird, no wind and frigid temperatures. Warmer air arrives for the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
In general the snowpack is deeper than normal and gaining strength following the avalanche cycle in early February (helped significantly by the cold temperatures). Three weak layers exist in the middle of the snowpack and continue to produce moderate, sudden planar test results on surface hoar.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were reported or observed today.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.