Avalanche forecast

Banff Yoho Kootenay

Dec 18 – 19, 2012Parks Canada
View on map
Archived · expired 14 years ago

Avalanche danger

Tue
Wed
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
Open full map

Highlights

Conditions are good for December. However, it is still early season and many of the bigger alpine features have not had a chance to fill in yet. Many thin spots still exist in the alpine leading us to have lower confidence in these features.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2
    There are some old windslabs on lee terrain at and above treeline that are sensitive to skier triggering. In the right terrain these could take the skier into a terrain trap.

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    2–3
    We are seeing weakening of the Nov 6 crust in thinner areas due to facetting. Although we haven't seen activity on this layer recently, it is still the prominent feature in this years snow pack, and should be evaluated in bigger features.

Weather Forecast

The drought continues...  Temperatures are cooling off a bit (approaching -20 along the divide).  We might see a couple cm's on monday night/ tuesday, and then a clearing trend for wednesday. ALP winds are forecast to increase to Moderate from the W tonight with the passing of a low pressure system and then ease again on Tuesday.

Snowpack Summary

A couple cm's of fluff overlies a well settled snowpack. In the ALP, old windslabs exist and are visible as 'rippled' snow on the surface. These may be reactive to human triggering. The Nov. 6th crust is facetting out, and is now more of a facet layer than a crust in many places. This layer is giving hard to no results in compression tests.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed today by forecasters during a flight of the highway avalanche control paths as well as a team in the Lake O'hara area.

Confidence

Wind speed and direction is uncertain on Monday

Regions covered