Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Ski quality has improved, just watch for localized storm slab formation and how that is bonding to the surface below. It should stay cloudy Sunday but local danger could increase if the sun pops out.
Weather Forecast
5cm and mainly cloudy on Sunday with a slight cooling trend and light NE winds. The sun will return on Monday with a more diurnal pattern.
Snowpack Summary
20-30 cm of recent snow has formed a variable soft slab on some features that is slowly bonding to the underlying surfaces, such as melt freeze crust on solar aspects and older snow layers including facets on shady aspects. Below this the majority of the snowpack is stable and has recently shown no results in tests.
Avalanche Summary
Forecasters had a big whumpf in the surprise pass area today. It was on a northerly aspect at 2400m adjacent to the usual ski run and was found to be a 30cm soft slab over facets. Other storm slabs to size 2 have been seen over the last 24 hours including 1 below the ice climb "the tease" and on Cathedral Mountain.
Confidence
Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Monday
Problems
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.