Time to dial things back until the new snow has a chance to settle and bond.
The avalanche hazard is increasing with new snow and strong winds continuing on Sunday. We expect to see some natural avalanches and be able to trigger fresh slabs in steep terrain.
Forecasted snow amounts vary...monitor local accumulations carefully.
New snow and strong winds are creating fresh wind slabs, up to 50 cm deep, that are reactive to skier/climber traffic, and may also fail naturally as more snow and wind arrives on Sunday. These are large enough to be consequential for climbers and skiers in steep terrain.
With the fresh snow and wind, we expect to see sluffing and small avalanches in steep alpine gullies and couloirs on Sunday.
Some new small natural wind slab avalanches were reported on Friday and Saturday. Local ski areas were able to trigger small wind slabs up to size 1.5. We expect avalanche activity to increase in the next 12-24 hrs.
5-15 cm of new snow on Saturday with moderate to strong SW winds is creating fresh wind slabs in alpine and exposed treeline terrain. Below this, most observations suggest a generally well-settled Rockies snowpack with no significant weak layers. Last week’s warm, wet weather produced a Nov 13 rain crust up to 2300 m. Overall, early-season travel conditions are good, with treeline snow depths of 40–80 cm.
Forecast snow amounts vary, with anywhere from 10-30 cm by Sunday night in the alpine. Moderate to strong SW winds (30-50 km/h in the alpine) will continue through Sunday, and ease Monday morning as the direction turns to a Northerly flow. Weekend treeline temperatures stay around -4 °C.
Click here for Environment Canada links to weather tables for the region.
