While the riding conditions remain good, the avalanche danger is deteriorating from incremental loading and facetting. Fresh windslabs exist in alpine areas, and the forecast indicates 20-40 cm of snow by Tuesday morning, which will trigger an avalanche cycle across the region. Heads up this week, things are changing.
New and older wind slabs are present in alpine and treeline lee areas that can be triggered by skiers and climbers. As the winds increase and more snow arrives these avalanches will get larger and more touchy. In thin rocky areas we are starting to see some avalanches scrub to ground in weak facets.
Some small avalanches were noted today at the Lake Louise ski area, up to size 1.5 with ski cuts and explosives. These were soft windslabs formed on Saturday night, failing 20-30 cm deep. No new avalanches observed by our field team in the Dolomite Peak area today.
15-25 cm of storm snow has been blown into drifts and windslabs in exposed areas. These slabs sit on a few buried crusts in the upper 40 cm, and a Nov 13 rain crust in the middle of the snowpack. The facetting process has started to break these crusts down, and we are seeing a slowly developing problem. At treeline and below, the snow remains generally soft, despite the wind, with a relatively supportive mid-pack, but the entire snowpack has been facetting and weakening.
Snowy days are ahead as the storm track is positioned directly over our region. Monday will see flurries all day; up to 15 cm on the Wapta and 5 cm elsewhere. Overnight Monday is the main pulse. Expect Tuesday morning storm totals up to 40 cm on the Wapta, and 20-25 cm in the rest of the park. Temps will be steady from -5 to -10, and winds will be strong from the SW.
