Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
After this pulse of light precipitation, we will again be into a spring daily cycle where hazard will correspond how well the crusts hold up through the day. Great skiing can still be found on steeper north aspects in the alpine.
Weather Forecast
5-10 cm up high overnight and drizzle to treeline. Winds will remain light N. Skies will be cloudy overnight and Saturday for most of the region, with more broken skies to the North. Good freeze forecasted Sat. night. Skies clear for Sunday & solar affect and daytime warming will again be factors in increasing the hazard through the day.
Snowpack Summary
North facing slopes hold 20 cm of dry powder with no shears underlying, and all other aspects up to 3000 m have a melt/freeze crust on the surface. This crust is breakable in many places, but began to hold the weight of a skier (just) on steep south facing terrain at 2400 meters. Very little precipitation over the day, may see 5 cm overnight.
Avalanche Summary
One size 2.5 slid to ground on a SW aspect in Richardson's Bowl near Lake Louise ski area. It initiated just below the cliffs and went sometime in the last 24 hrs.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.