Strong winds continue to build wind slab at treeline and above. Watch for wind slab development farther down slopes than usual.
Strong to extreme winds are building wind slabs with the recent snow. Watch for wind slab development on top of the Jan 27th melt freeze crust.
The bottom of the snow pack is inherently weak with well developed Facets and Depth Hoar. Avalanches initiating in the upper snowpack are likely to step down to this layer and gain significant mass.
One skier triggered size 1 avalanche occurred in the Buck Lake area of the Icefields Parkways on Jan 31st.
Don't forget to post avalanche observations to the MIN.
Strong southwest wind is stripping snow in exposed alpine features and creating wind slab into exposed tree line. A thin melt freeze crust down 25cm below 2100m is showing sudden collapse results in snow pit tests below this layer on facets. Generally, the bottom of the snowpack is weak facets and depth hoar. The snowpack ranges from 50 to 120cm.
Saturday- Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries.
Precipitation: Trace.
Alpine temperature: High -6 °C.
Ridge wind southwest: 15 km/h gusting to 40 km/h.
Freezing level: 1400 metres.
Sunday- Mainly cloudy with scattered flurries.
Accumulation: 4 cm.
Alpine temperature: Low -9 °C, High -5 °C.
Ridge wind southwest: 20 km/h gusting to 50 km/h.
Freezing level: 1500 metres.
Monday-Cloudy with sunny periods and isolated flurries.
Precipitation: Trace.
Alpine temperature: Low -14 °C, High -9 °C.
Ridge wind southwest: 20-40 km/h.
Freezing level at valley bottom
Detailed weather forecasts from Avalanche Canada: https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
