Don't let the fresh snow lure you into risky behavior. Maintain situational awareness and avoid overhead hazard.
Touchy windslabs from recent strong winds exist in alpine and treeline, and possibly in open areas below treeline. These new slabs are bonded poorly to the faceted snow and/or crusts they overlie. Numerous natural & explosives controlled windslab avalanches have occurred in the last 24 hrs.
This problem layer is the crust and facets created by early February's warm spell and seems to be more active lower in elevation. Below 2500m of sunny slopes and 2800m on shaded slopes.
The base of the snowpack is inherently weak and untrustworthy. Tickling this deep layer would result in a high consequence avalanche.
15 to 50 cm of new snow has fallen over the region, with the highest amounts around the Columbia Icefields. This has been accompanied by strong westerly winds at tree line and above. The new snow is falling on faceted snow which sits on a 1-3cm thick crust that is down 25-70 cm. The mid-pack is faceted with basal depth hoar and well developed facets near ground. HS ranges from 60 to 130cm.
The Mountain Weather Forecast is available at Avalanche Canada https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
Wednesday
Snow, heavy at times.
Accumulation: 27 cm.
Alpine temperature: High -5 °C.
Ridge wind southwest: 20 km/h gusting to 60 km/h.
Thursday
Periods of snow.
Accumulation: 15 cm.
Alpine temperature: Low -13 °C, High -5 °C.
Mostly light ridge wind occasionally gusting to 55 km/h.
