Plan for early starts and early finishes.
Cornices are large and menacing. Variable Spring conditions can make them solid one moment and fragile the next. Always a good idea to avoid them. Consider them large triggers on the slopes below and inherently dangerous by their mass.
This problem can range from unreactive to touchy depending on a cornucopia of changing daily weather conditions. Watch this problem increase during the day as temperatures rise and solar input occurs. A small initiation can quickly gain momentum.
Check your favorite local weather sites for updated atmospheric conditions.
The snowpack summary for April 25th is a temperature crust on steep solar aspects. Sheltered locations may hold 5-15cm of spring powder snow over previous wind surfaces and crusts. Several thick and thin crusts exist in the upper snowpack depending on aspect, elevation, and angle. The middle of the snowpack is supportive and well consolidated.
Maligne and Icefield's patrol on April 25th observed several loose wet avalanches up to size 1.5 mainly solar triggered. Consult the Mountain Information Network for recent observations, and please consider submitting a MIN report .
