Winter still exists in Jasper! Good skiing can be found in the right locations.
The two main concerns for persistent slabs are: Recent slabs from northerly winds. Especially steep solar terrain where a prominent sun crust would be. Next the concern for a midpack facet weakness in sheltered upper treeline and alpine features.
Cold and snowy for the next few days, Wednesday night around 10cm with light westerly winds with alpine temps around -4. Thursday flurries with an alpine high of -2 with around 5-10cm of accumulation with freezing levels up to 2100m. Friday flurries with alpine temps -5 moderate winds with strong gusts from the west with freezing levels at 1800m.
5-15cm new low density snow overlies previous slabs built from N winds that may still be reactive in isolated alpine terrain where a crust is present. Buried facet layers remain a concern with small whumpfs and variable test results. Most concern is on protected northerly alpine features or where they sit on buried crusts.
A team in the Columbia Icefields on wednesday did not observe any new avalanches. To the South of our region (Bow Summit), 2 large (size 2 - 2.5) persistent slabs were remotely triggered on alpine SW aspects Tuesday. On Sunday, 1 Large (size 2.5) Persistent slab was observed in the Maligne Range on an East aspect, in convex alpine terrain.
