Winds have remained light, temperatures have remained cool, and the snow has remained soft. It's almost a miracle. The weather forecast indicates this pattern will continue through Friday, with a slight refresh on Thursday night. Enjoy the good conditions and keep those MIN reports coming; we read and appreciate them all.
Some moderate SW winds over the past 48-hours have probably created small windslabs in exposed areas in the alpine. Watch carefully for any evidence of these.
A few small natural avalanches up to size 1 were observed on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday - all in extreme terrain.
20-40 cms of light snow is bonding well to the layers below. Some very thin, isolated windslabs have formed at high elevations, but the snow is still soft. The lower snowpack is well-settled with no significant weak layers; however, a rain crust exists below ~2300 m, but no avalanches have been observed running on it. Overall, early-season travel and snowpack conditions are favourable, with treeline snow depths ranging from 70 to 100 cm.
A weak trough crosses through the area on Thursday, creating mostly cloudy skies and light winds, but Thursday evening could see up to 5 cm of snow in some areas. In the wake of this system on Friday morning, the wind abruptly switches to the NE as colder air and a ridge of high pressure create cooler temps and clear skies for Saturday.
Click here for Environment Canada links to weather tables for the region.
