The new snow has improved the skiing/riding quality, but the very cold temperatures are settling in!
Extreme cold magnifies the consequence of an accident. Choose lower risk terrain, bring extra clothing, and leave yourself extra daylight hours to deal with an accident or equipment failure if you decide to venture out.
The recent snowfall is starting to react as a storm slab in some locations failing on the Dec 31 layer of surface hoar or spotty sun crust. Other areas it is reacting more as a wind slab in the lees of features. The new snow may hide wind slabs created from the previous strong S-SW wind.
The base of the snowpack consists of weak facets and depth hoar. There has not been any avalanche activity on this layer for a while but the consequences of triggering it remain serious. Use caution in steep terrain or on planar slopes where failures in these basal facets are more likely to propagate.
Lake Louise teams reported small soft storm slabs to size 1.5 failing with explosives on NE alpine features. Some remotely triggered small storm slabs in adjacent features. They also remotely triggered a small storm slab in a steep feature that failed on a sun crust on a treeline south aspect. Whereas at Sunshine, teams reported a few small soft wind slabs on lee features.
We received 10-40 cm of snow in the past 24 hours (KNP greatest amounts). There is now 20-60 cm of snow over the Dec 31 layer of surface hoar in sheltered areas and a spotty sun crust that developed during an inversion over the holidays.
The mid pack is supportive and contains two crusts (Dec. 22nd and Dec 5th).
The base of the snowpack consists of weaker facets and depth hoar.
Treeline snow depths range from 80 -130 cm.
Very light flurries Wednesday evening as the Arctic air descends and dominates for a few days.
Thurs: Light east winds. Temps -30. 1-2 cms snow in the am, then skies clear
Fri: Calm, sunny and super cold!! -35 to -40 C range
Sat: slightly warmer with highs -25C
Sun: possibly a slight inversion, highs around -20C
For more information, click Mountain Weather Forecast.
