East Kakwa

New snow and wind will build fresh wind slabs at upper elevations. Be aware that small avalanches could step down to weak layers deeper in the snowpack.

There have been no new reports of avalanche activity in the past two days.

As snow starts to accumulate over the next few days and the load slowly starts to increase above buried weak layers, we expect persistent slabs to become more reactive.

The wind has blown from a variety of directions over the past few days. Wind effect can be found on all aspects in exposed terrain.

30 to 50 cm below the snow surface you may find surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain, weak facets, or a hard melt-freeze crust on south and west-facing slopes.

A thick and hard widespread crust that formed in early February is buried about 60 to 80 cm deep. This crust may have a layer of facets above it.

The eastern portion of this region is much shallower with a highly variable and wind affected snowpack.

Thursday Night

Mostly cloudy with 3 to 8 cm snow. 25 to 50 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -9°C.

Friday

Cloudy with 3 to 5 cm of snow expected. 30 to 50 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -4°C. Freezing level 1400 m.

Saturday

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of new snow expected. 30 to 50 km/h south alpine wind. Treeline temperature -3°C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Sunday

Cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of new snow expected. 20 to 40 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -1°C. Freezing level 1400 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Recent wind has varied in direction so watch for wind slabs on all aspects.
• Conservative terrain selection is critical, choose only well supported, low consequence lines.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
• Remote triggering is a concern, watch out for adjacent and overhead slopes.