The snowpack remains generally shallow and weak, a little less so to the West. Do not lose sight of the deep persistent slab problem even though conditions appear to have improved.
The lower snowpack is comprised of weak facets and depth hoar with the upper snowpack forming a 40 to 90cm thick slab above. This weak basal layer is uniform across most of the forecasting region and has been responsible for most of the avalanche activity to date this season.
Very small results were reported from Lake Louise patrol doing control runs. Sunshine patrol observed a size 2 in the Healy Paths that was older than 72 hours. Also, a ski patroller triggered a size 2 deep persistent slab while skiing the slope after getting no result with explosives. No burial or injuries.
Small amounts of snow have accumulated over the last 10 days bringing the total to roughly 10cm settled, with little wind effect. The Dec 17 layer is down 25-50 cm and the Nov 16 deep persistent layer is 40-90 cm. Both of these layers continue to produce sudden failures in snowpack tests. In deeper snowpack areas like Little Yoho these two layers are deeper and more spread apart in the snowpack.
Temperatures will remain slightly warmer than seasonal with the ridge around -10 and the valley about -5 on Wednesday. Isolated flurries may bring a trace of snow. The wind is expected to pick up into the medium/strong range from the SW early Wednesday morning.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
