Small windslabs may be found in alpine terrain. These have been generally small and stubborn to trigger, but may be enough to ruin your day in steep terrain. Sheltered terrain is still holding good skiing.
The cold temps continue. Make sure you have the gear to stay warm if any unexpected delays occur.
Winds overnight on Wednesday created a thin layer of hard windslab in many alpine lee features. This adds to older windslabs that existed in isolated alpine terrain and may be triggerable in some areas. Be cautious of steep wind affected alpine terrain.
No new avalanches were observed or reported in Little Yoho, however, in neighbouring areas:
Local ski hills were reporting thin windslabs that were small in size but could be triggered with ski cuts and explosives.
There was a remotely triggered avalanche just southwest of our region that likely failed on the Jan. 30th layer in an area with a deeper snowpack and more of a windslab above this layer.
30-40 cm of snow from last weekend has been affected by the wind in exposed alpine locations. This recent snow has buried a weak layer of facets, sun crust and surface hoar (Jan 30th) which is currently not reactive, but is worth watching if we get more wind loading or new snow. The mid and lower snowpack is well settled, with snowpack depths at the treeline ranging from 120cm to 180cm.
Dry and cold conditions will persist. Treeline temperatures will be steady between -17 to -21°C. Winds will increase slightly to moderate from the west Friday night and into Saturday. Saturday will be mostly cloudy and we may see a trace of new snow.
