Regions
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Its a good time to attempt bigger ski and alpine objectives until the weather changes. Just keep the basal layer in mind when poking into the big terrain. Decent powder on sheltered, shady aspects. SH
Weather Forecast
Its going to be very cold again for the next couple of days with lows in the -30C range, no snow, and light winds. Afternoons should start warming up into the -10C range. On Monday we will switch to a SW flow with the possibility of light snow on Tuesday and a gradual warming trend.
Snowpack Summary
5-10 cm of facetted snow sits on the spotty January 30th surface hoar. In the alpine this snow is over a firm wind slab or facetted sun crust on S & W aspects. In Yoho today, N aspects have powder with minor wind effect from down flowing winds. Compression tests ranging from hard to no result on the basal depth hoar/crust.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches have been observed or reported.
Confidence
Due to the number and quality of field observations on Saturday
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.