Be suspicious of what's above you, Avalanches ran full path yesterday! Good day to avoid avalanche terrain and ski/ride in the trees or sheltered locations from the wind.
Weather Forecast
It's cold, but at least it's windy as the Alberta high moves south west over us. Alpine high of -19 with isolated flurries, winds easing to moderate. No significant precipitation forecasted until Thursday, when a low pressure system encroaches from the pacific. Hopefully bringing with it warmer temps and 35mm of precipitation.
Snowpack Summary
Strong winds from the Northerly quarter has reverse loaded 25cm of storm snow forming wind slabs on lee terrain features. This wind slab overlies yesterday's storm slab which sits on Saturday's wind slab. These surface and near surface instabilities are sitting on a variety of old surfaces, sun crusts and near surface faceting.
Avalanche Summary
On Mt Fidelity yesterday we saw a widespread storm slab avalanche cycle to size 2 on all aspects and elevations. The slabs were 20cm deep, propagating up to 50m wide and remoting from up to 50m away. In the Highway corridor, there was also a widespread avalanche cycle to size 3.5 mainly on the East side of the Pass, with the average size being a 2.
Problems
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.