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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Jan 25th, 2017–Jan 26th, 2017

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.
Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely.

Regions

Little Yoho.

Moderate danger ratings do not tell the whole story. The snowpack is weak, and isolated avalanches can be triggered. Be extremely careful around any avalanche starting zones. 10mm surface hoar is growing on the snow surface . . . our next weak layer.

Weather Forecast

There is no new snow in the near-term weather forecast, as a ridge of high pressure remains stationary over the central rockies. Some cloud cover may appear, but no precipitation is expected and temperatures on Thursday will range from -5 to -10 and light NW winds.

Snowpack Summary

In the Emerald Lake Slide Path, a generally weak snowpack exists. At 2000 m, in a 135cm of snowpack, the Jan 17 surface hoar layer is down 25cm with sudden planar test results - but minimal slab formation above. In the mid-pack, the Dec facets are 20cm thick and prominent, and near the ground a layer of weak facets sits just below on old ice crust.

Avalanche Summary

One new avalanche (last 24-hr) was observed at 2600m on the SW side of Mt. Ogden, but we could not tell how deep the fracture line was. Monday's avalanche control in Yoho Park produced numerous size 2 and 2.5 avalanches on Mt Dennis and one size 3 on Mt Bosworth.

Confidence

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.