Weeping Wall and Polar Circus ice climbs will be closed on Friday, January 17th, for avalanche control in the area.
Snow squalls on Thursday delivered variable amounts of snow throughout the bulletin region.Assess your usual routes with a fresh mindset, as conditions have changed significantly due to new snow and strong winds.
Recent snow and strong winds created new wind slabs in many high elevation features. If triggered, they have the potential to step down to deeper instabilities.
A variety of crusts with facets above and below exist at the bottom of the snowpack. These layers are going to be with us for a long time and pose a low probability, high consequence situation if triggered.
On Thursday, Large natural wind slab observed in the alpine on east aspect near Jasper Skytram. Road patrol down the Icefield Parkway observed a few large avalanches initiating in steep alpine and running far down the path, entraining facets and more snow along the way. Visibility was limited.Local ski resort has been reporting sporadic results on the deep persistent layer in the alpine.
The snowpack is 70- 130 cm in depth at tree line. 10- 15 cm of storm snow sitting on the surface. The middle of the snowpack is facetted and there is a deep persistent layer at the base of the snowpack consisting of a decomposing melt freeze crust and depth hoar.
Friday
Mix of sun and cloud. Alpine high of -15 with temperatures dropping throughout the day. Light north winds at ridge tops. Freezing levels at valley bottom
SaturdaySunny. Precipitation: Nil. Alpine temperature: Low -24 °C, High -19 °C. Ridge wind light to 15 km/h.This trend will persist into Sunday.
