The Icefields area saw up to 50cm of new snow with strong winds forming touchy windslabs. Exercise a high level of caution if you're heading out into the mountains, it's time to dial it way back.
Touchy windslabs from recent strong winds exist in alpine and treeline, and possibly in open areas below treeline. These new slabs are bonded poorly to the faceted snow and/or crusts they overlie. Numerous natural & explosives controlled windslab avalanches have occurred in the last 24 hrs.
The base of the snowpack is inherently weak and untrustworthy. Tickling this deep layer would result in a high consequence avalanche.
Numerous natural windslab avalanches, up to size 2 were observed in the Icefields area in the alpine and treeline. Explosives control in the Parkers area produced windslab results up to size 2.
15 to 50 cm of new snow has fallen over the region, with the highest amounts around the Columbia Icefields. This has been accompanied by strong westerly winds at tree line and above. The new snow is falling on faceted snow which sits on a 1-3cm thick crust that is down 25-70 cm. The mid-pack is faceted with basal depth hoar and well developed facets near ground. HS ranges from 60 to 130cm.
The Mountain Weather Forecast is available at Avalanche Canada https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
Tuesday
Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Alpine temperature High of -19 °C. Ridge wind southwest 15-35 km/h.
Wednesday
Snow. Accumulation 20-30 cm. Alpine temperature: Low -17 °C, High -6 °C. Ridge wind southwest: 25 km/h gusting to 70 km/h.
