We have separated this small zone from the rest of the Banff, Yoho & Kootenay forecast region because the snowpack is stronger here, and the conditions are better. There is a lot of storm snow here, so watch for sluffing and even a hint of wind which will quickly develop windslabs. Ease into things; conditions are good but not perfect.
10-15 cm of snow in the past 24 hours has added to the storm snow, resulting in a lot of deep, low density snow that is sluffing easily in steep terrain.
A layer of weak facets adjacent to an October rain crust exists near the base of the snowpack and is now overlain by up to 100 cm of snow. This problem is not easily triggered, but the most likely locations are 30 to 45-degree, windswept, shallow snowpack areas - a shallow snowpack is a weak snowpack.
Our field team near Emerald Lake observed Dry Loose avalanches up to size 2 running out of steep alpine terrain in the Emerald Basin. No other avalanche observations were reported.
20-40 cm unconsolidated storm snow has fallen over the past five days, with very little wind. This overlies a 100-120 cm snowpack with a strong mid-pack but a weak crust/facet layer near the ground. The distribution and strength of this layer varies, but conditions in the deeper snowpack of the Little Yoho region are better than areas further east in BYK. With the amount of snow available for transport, expect conditions to change quickly with any wind loading.
Generally stable weather is forecast for the next few days, as a weak ridge of high pressure exits the region resulting in overcast skies, cool temperatures and light, but continuous snow in the west. Expect up to10 cm of new snow, temperatures in the -5 to -12 range and SW winds ranging from light to moderate (20-30 km/hr). Looking ahead towards the weekend, temperatures will dip below -20.
