Clearing is forecasted for the weekend, making it a good time for alpine objectives. Start early and finish early.
The ski quality has slightly improved with small amounts of new snow over the last 24 hours. Expect evidence of widespread wind affect from earlier in the week.
Travel conditions are generally very good.
20-30 cm of snow over the past 8 days combined with strong south-southwest winds has created widespread wind affect treeline and above. Watch for lingering pockets of new and old slab in leeward and unsupported areas. Recent avalanches related to this problem are stepping down to the Feb 3rd.
The Feb 3 layer is down 60-130 cm. In shallow snowpack areas on northerly alpine aspects, this layer may still be sensitive to skiers, with remote triggering observed in a couple of instances last week. All recent avalanches that initiated on this Feb 3 layer stepped down to the basal facets/ground.
If the sun has prolonged exposure it could produce isolated wet loose avalanches, particularly out of steep, southerly and/or rocky terrain
During a flight along Hwy 93N Fri Visitor Safety observed evidence of a size 2.5 wind slab avalanche stepping down to the Feb 3rd on Bow Peak (NE aspect) and several size 1.5's on similar terrain in the area.
Avalanches reported on Thursday were two cornice triggered size 2.5's on N and E aspects of Mount Shanks (~72 hours old) and a cornice triggered size 3 slab on a NE and SE aspect at 2800m above Bow Lake. Failure planes are the Feb 3rd interface.
Up to 15cm of new snow in the last 24 hours overlies crusts on solar aspects, and up to ~2000 m on north aspects. Above this the snow surface is dry, wind-affected snow. The upper snowpack contains several buried crusts.
The midpack is generally well settled down to the February 3 persistent weak layer which remains a concern in shallow snowpack areas on northerly alpine aspects. In these areas, no crusts are found in the upper snowpack and the midpack remains thin and weak.
Friday night: Clear periods, alpine temperature low of -5°C, mainly light ridge wind, gusting to 35km/h
Saturday: Mix of sun and cloud, alpine temperature high of 2°C, mainly light ridge wind, gusting to 35km/h and freezing level up to 2400m
Sunday: Mix of sun and cloud, alpine temperature high of 4°C, mainly light ridge wind, gusting to 30km/h and freezing level up to 2600m
