Select your line conservatively, since the best turns for the next few days will be on soft slabs that will not bond well to the old, hard wind hammered snow surface.
Weather Forecast
A system is moving through overnight with moderate to strong SW winds that will create windslabs on lee ridgetops and terrain features. The anticipated snowfall is around 10 - 20cm in the icefields area and less as you go further North toward jasper. A trailing cold front will drop the temperature and the skies are expected to clear late Wednesday.
Snowpack Summary
Hard windslab is bridging the weak basal facets above treeline. Field tests on Monday in the alpine on a SE windloaded terrain feature produced easy results on a buried surface hoar layer directly below the hardslab. This confirms that there are several weak layers below that the avalanche can slide on. Below treeline, the mid-pack is weak.
Avalanche Summary
No new avalanches were observed today.
Confidence
Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Wednesday
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.