Avalanche forecast

Banff Yoho Kootenay

Feb 10 – 11, 2018Parks Canada
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Archived · expired 9 years ago

Avalanche danger

Sun
Mon
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/scond/cond_e.asp?oid=30728&opark=100092Please continue to avoid avalanche terrain. While natural avalanche activity is beginning to taper, human triggering will continue to be very touchy. Solar releases can be expected from rocky terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2–4
    Three weak layers exist in the mid snowpack: Jan 16, Jan 6, and Dec 15. All are a mix of sun crust, surface hoar and facets depending on the aspect and elevation. These layers are very sensitive to triggering both naturally and by human triggering.

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible - Likely
    Size
    1–2.5
    There are storm slabs up to 1m thick on many aspects and elevations from the big storm on Thursday. These will be highly sensitive to triggering and once initiated, can step down to the deeper persistent layers causing very large avalanches.

Weather Forecast

A few days without precipitation and moderately cold temperatures are forecast. Sunny skies may produce solar releases from rocky areas. The crystal ball says more snow on Tuesday.

Snowpack Summary

Thursdays storm dropped 30 - 50cm with variable winds. This combined with other recent snow has overloaded the 3 main mid pack concerns which are the Jan 16th, Jan 6th, and Dec.15 weak layers. These are a mix of facets, crusts and surface hoar and can be found 70cm to over 150cm deep in the snowpack and are currently producing very large results.

Avalanche Summary

The avalanche cycle seems to be tapering but large, natural events to size 3.5 were noted today. Human triggering continues to be reported. Avalanche control today produced many large avalanches over paths that had been controlled very recently.

Confidence

Regions covered