Register for an account and never miss a forecast again!
RegisterRegister for an account and never miss a forecast again!
RegisterNov 30th, 2019–Dec 1st, 2019
Banff Yoho Kootenay.
Heading out with the mind set of "LOW means GO" may lead you into terrain where triggering a small avalanche has severe consequence, and these are still possible in extreme terrain. Check the alpine weather stations for inverted temperatures.
Sunday will see valley bottom lows in the -15 to -20C range while in the alpine temperatures will be inverted from -5 to -10C. Winds will generally be light and no new snow is expected. On Sunday night into Monday winds will increase to strong from the SW accompanied by some light flurries along the divide.
Cold temperatures continue to facet the entire snowpack. There is widespread but mainly unreactive wind effect in the alpine. The Nov 8 crust is down 20-30cm up to around 2400m which is facetting over time. The lower snowpack is a mix of weak facets & crusts. Snowpack depths at treeline vary from 60-90 cm with up to 140 cm in lee areas.
No new avalanches observed Saturday. On Friday Sunshine ski hill had an explosive controlled size 2.5 which was a wind slab that slid on facets. An isolated event but it shows that triggering an avalanche is still possible in the right spot.