Avalanche Forecast

Issued: Jan 29th, 2014 4:00PM

The alpine rating is moderate, the treeline rating is moderate, and the below treeline rating is low. Known problems include Deep Persistent Slabs.

stephen holeczi, Parks Canada

Banff Yoho Kootenay.

As you start to poke into bigger, steeper terrain, be careful around thin snowpack areas where you could trigger the basal weakness. Deeper snowpack areas West of the divide have the best ski quality. SH

Summary

Weather Forecast

Only a few cm of snow are expected for most of the region Thursday. Light E winds will switch yet again to a Northerly flow, bringing in cold temperatures (lows in the minus 20's) and no snow for the foreseeable future.

Snowpack Summary

The Jan 25th surface hoar layer is buried under 5 cm of snow in the Bow Summit area, but remains on the surface in most of the forecast region. This will become a weak layer to watch in the future. Strong solar radiation has formed a suncrust on S & W facing slopes. The basal facets remain weak, but the overall snowpack is gaining strength.

Avalanche Summary

No new avalanches observed in the past several days.

Confidence

on Thursday

Problems

Deep Persistent Slabs

It is a classic Rockies problem of low likelihood, high consequence when dealing with the basal depth hoar/crust. No activity has been seen on this layer in a week, but where the snowpack is thin, your likelihood of triggering a slide will increase.

Be aware of the potential for full depth avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.Be aware of thin areas that may propogate to deeper instabilites.

Aspects: All aspects.

Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.

Likelihood

Unlikely - Possible

Expected Size

2 - 3

Valid until: Jan 30th, 2014 4:00PM