Jasper

Moderate winds will redistribute incoming snow into fresh reactive windslabs that should be assessed before entering terrain.

Once triggered, windslabs may initiate larger deep persistent slabs.

Several natural wind slab avalanches to size 2 as well as smaller loose dry avalanches were observed in the Icefields area on January 29th.

Incoming snow is falling on a variety of surfaces depending on location, including melt freeze crusts, sun crusts, hard wind slabs, and soft faceted snow. These overlie a generally weak and faceted mid-pack. At the bottom of the snowpack are the early season crusts, which are faceting and surrounded by large depth hoar. The snowpack is 70-130 cm in depth at tree line, and thins quickly below.

Friday

Flurries. Accumulation: 8 cm. Alpine temperature: High -7 °C. Ridge wind southwest: 15 km/h gusting to 40 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.

Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries. Accumulation: 4 cm. Alpine temperature: Low -21 °C, High -8 °C. Mostly light ridge wind occasionally gusting to 50 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.

Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Precipitation: Trace. Alpine temperature: Low -24 °C, High -18 °C. Ridge wind light to 15 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.

• Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present in the snowpack.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.