Merry Christmas from Jasper Visitor Safety!Should you brave the cold this weekend, keep new wind slabs in your mind.
Up to 35cm settled snow with moderate to strong winds building wind slabs on lee and cross loaded features. Slab development can be found low in terrain features.December rain crust is a suspect weak layer in BTL wind affected snow.
Dry loose cycle will persist for the short term from steep terrain.
This problem although stubborn persists in isolated alpine terrain and can initiate with a large trigger or rapid loading. Use extra caution in thin areas were humans are most likely to trigger this high consequence layer.
Saturday: Isolated flurries. Precipitation: Trace. Alpine temperature: High -25 °C. Wind east: 10 km/h.Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries. Precipitation: Trace. Alpine temperature: Low -32 °C, High -24 °C. Wind east: 10 km/h.
Monday: Sunny. Alpine temperature: Low -32 °C, High -21 °C. Wind west: 10 km/h.
20-35cm oif low density storm snow over the past 48 hrs accompanied by moderate to strong SW winds adding to wind slab development in the alpine and on exposed terrain features at treeline. The mid-pack is generally supportive with an exception of a weak rain crust 30-40 cm down found up to 1950m. Cold temperatures will promote faceting next week.
Avalanche control on Friday produced numerous thin wind slabs up to size 2 on wind loaded open tree line features. Of note are large slab results running on the December rain crust in open features below tree line. Dry loose results up to size 1.5 at sheltered BTL features. No new naturals observed.
