Skiing is still rather desperate out there at this time. Some good turns were found in Alpine terrain on the weekend but be prepared to work hard for them. Its a long season and patience is a virtue.
Summary
Confidence
Fair - Due to limited field observations for the entire period
Weather Forecast
We may see a few cm of new snow throughout the weekend but overall we are not expecting a significant amount of new snow. On Tuesday we can look forward to warm and windy conditions as a chinook is forecast to roll through the region.
Avalanche Summary
Evidence of an older (over 48hrs) cycle up to sz 2.5 was observed with the majority of these slides occurring on N and E aspects. A few loose dry Na up to sz 1 were observed on solar aspects.
Snowpack Summary
Above 2200m generally 50cm -100cm of snow depending on area. Field tests in the Aster Lake area on a morainal wall at 2600m showed a generally well settled early season snowpack with HS of 97cm. Easy resistant planer sheers can be found in the top 20cm of the snowpack where it has been slightly wind affected and a more moderate resistant planar sheer can be found down 50-60cm. The 1027 Crust/Interface is down 70cm but the snow above this layer seems to be bonding well. Field observations at this time are very limited and we know that there is currently lots of variability in snowpack depths throughout the region. At treeline and below. Snowpack is generally just at or below threshold depths for avalanches to occur.
burke.duncan,
Alberta Parks
