Regions
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
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.
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.