Near continuous flurries are adding to our snowpack depth. Ski quality is quite good at the moment, but be sure to keep yourself in tune with the snowpack as a whole. It's easy to forget the deeper layers when the skiing is good.
Slabs of all types are out there: fresh windslabs on East aspects, old buried slabs pretty much everywhere and probably wind "pressed" slabs on windward aspects. If the warm snow continues, storm slabs will also be in mix. Sporty times!
Temperatures are going to steadily creep up to almost 0 degrees by tomorrow afternoon. Even the overnight period will see them rise. On the Spray it won't cause too much of an issue, but in the Bow Valley/Highway 40/Ghost area, expect a dramatic warming trend. The winds will be from the SSW and gusty. As for snow, it looks like there will be some more flurries rolling through. Amounts will vary, but if is like today was, expect another 5-10cm. Tuesday will see another pulse of snow, but we're aren't sure just how much yet.
Many groups in the Black Prince area noted numerous loose dry avalanches out of steep, alpine cliff terrain. The largest was sz2. It was unclear if these triggered slabs below.
We spent the day in the Black Prince area today and found the near continuous flurries kept adding to the snowpack. Down low had about 20cm from the last few days, and higher had about 35cm. While that drainage is fairly sheltered, we did note that alpine winds were blowing snow around and creating new windslabs in the alpine. It's safe to expect the regional alpine zone will have reactive windslabs on any lee (east) aspect. We may also have wind "pressing" slabs on the windward sides as well. This new snow sits on old surfaces which generally aren't a problem. The one exception to this is a narrow elevation band at treeline where the old slabs started to facet (weaken) during last week's cold snap. Steep convex rolls deserve some caution as the buried windslabs may be triggerable.
