Cooler temperatures are incrementally improving stability. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route finding and conservative decisions should be your mantra. Shallow spots will remain the likely trigger spots.
Weather Forecast
-12 Sunday night followed by clear skies, light west winds, and daytime temperatures ranging from -5 to -11. Monday to Wednesday will be scattered clouds and temperatures from -2 to -10.
Snowpack Summary
Warm temperatures are promoting settlement. BTL is a little more supportive but it remains the weakest of our elevation bands as not much bridges the basal facets. TL and above, wind slabs are present. Stability tests range from very easy to moderate sudden collapse on the basal facets.
Avalanche Summary
Visibility was excellent on Saturday. A couple lower elevation solar facing steep gullies slid to size 2 but otherwise, little else noted. Thursday's control work on the Icefields Parkway yielded large avalanches to size 3 on all alpine aspects releasing on either the storm snow interface or on basal facets.
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.