We've had a fair amount of snow, and it feels great! But the lightness of the snow, combined with the strong wind, means that the cover is still very thin in many places. The snowpack is highly variable in the alpine and at the treeline. Be especially careful near freshly loaded snow, as wind slabs are particularly sensitive during its formation.
The light storm snow will continue to be moved to the leeward slopes. Although we weren't able to observe this problem on Wednesday, we suspect that alpine gullies, couloirs and depressions may have been heavily loaded with this new snow, and you could find new reactive windslabs. Some alpine couloirs at the treeline could also be affected.
No new avalanche was reported or observed. If you go into the backcountry, thanks for sharing your observations on the Mountain Information Network (MIN).
The 15 to 30 cm of very light new snow (1mm of water for 2 cm of snow) received on Tuesday night was easily moved by the strong to extreme wind that accompanied the storm. Unfortunately, in many places in the south, this new snow didn't have a chance to settle on the ground because the wind was so strong ... or it settled directly on the rock. This was the case at Les Mines Madeleine on Wednesday. We suspect a similar situation at the Mount Albert alpine, but this remains to be verified. In the north, it's back to crust or hard-packed snow.
Otherwise, the distribution of the snowpack remains extremely variable, ranging from 5 to 180 cm. The best snow is to be found below the tree line, but not necessarily the best skiing, as obstacles are always close by.
Synopsis: Thanks to moderate northwesterly winds and an ice-free St-Lawrence river, we could see a few more snow showers in the coming days.
Wednesday evening and night: Light snow, 3 to 5 cm. Wind northwest, 20 to 40 km/h. Low -16.
Thursday: Cloudy. Light snow. Wind west, 40 to 60 km/h. High -16C.
Friday: Alternating sun and cloud. Light snow possible. Wind northwest, 20 to 40 km/h. Maximum -15C.
Saturday: Cloudy. Wind north, 10 to 25 km/h. High -8.
For more details, check out the most recent alpine weather forecast.
