Further to the announcement of Parks Canada facility and service closures last week, as of March 25, 2020, Parks Canada will temporarily suspend motor vehicle access to non-essential roadways by visitors.
10-15cm of new snow in the past 48 hrs appears to be bonding well to layers below. At ridge tops and on solar slopes, where crusts may be buried, this problem is of most concern.
The mid snowpack is consolidating and offers bridging strength over a weak base. Caution is needed in areas where the snowpack is thin. Collapsing cornices may trigger this weakness unleashing large avalanches.
Cooling tonight with a good freeze to the surface layers of the snow. However a warming trend is underway over the next 4 days with limited below treeline snowopack recover as we enter the weekend. During the next 24hrs precipitation amounts will be modest but winds will be strong from the west in the alpine: Mountain weather forecast
The mid snowpack is consolidating providing good bridging strength over the weak base. Sun and temperatures crusts laminate the upper snowpack. At treeline and above watch for thin windslabs over these crusts where bonding may be poor, particularly on solar facing slopes. Cornices loom large and are particularly capricious at this time of year.
Recent activity has been limited to very few point releases to size 1.5 from steep rocky terrain. There is significant snow clinging to steep rock faces which when warmed by the sun will rapidly destabilize. Similarly cornices are large and should be considered a looming hazard at all times.
