Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
While it feels like spring Below Treeline, fresh snow, strong winds and cooling temperatures will keep it feeling like winter in the Alpine through the weekend. Crusts make for rough travel up to treeline where dry snow is found on shaded aspects.
Weather Forecast
A series of lows will affect the region starting Friday night as the remnants of the first reaches the divide. Around 5cm is expected by Saturday morning with light to moderate SW winds that may increase to strong west by mid morning. Expect both the winds, and the flurries to continue through midday Sunday before the next low approaches.
Snowpack Summary
Up to 5cm recent snow at upper elevations. Melt-freeze crusts on all aspects up to 2000m and higher all other aspects. On North and East aspects in the alpine, up to 30cm of unconsolidated snow can be found. Below this, a stiff slab overlying weak facets remains a concern in some places and a weak, faceted snowpack, remains a concern in thin areas.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were observed today.
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.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.
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.