25-40cm of storm snow from last week is settling into a slab in the upper snowpack. Winds have been strong from the north west through south west, creating reactive hard wind slabs (10-15 cm thick) in exposed locations on down wind features.
See here for a good video summarizing conditions near Valemount. These accumulations overlie a mix of older wind slabs in exposed higher elevation terrain, a sun crust on steep solar aspects and surface hoar on sheltered slopes.Below the snow surface, several persistent weak layers make up a troublesome snowpack. In the top 1-1.5 m of the snowpack, two surface hoar layers buried in January can be found. Expect to find at least one of these layers on all aspects and elevations.Deeper in the snowpack (120-200 cm deep) is a facet/crust/surface hoar layer from December, most prevalent at and below tree line.Near the base of the snowpack is a crust/facet combo, most likely to be triggered from thin spots in the alpine.All of these layers have produced large avalanches recently. The wide distribution and ongoing reactivity of these layers suggests that avoidance through choosing simple terrain is the best strategy.