Recent snow and strong wind Tuesday has bumped up the hazard creating fresh windslabs on underlying crusts. Snow amounts vary across the region and with elevation. Time to take a step back in terrain choices.
10-20 cm new with strong SW wind on Tuesday created wind slabs generally 20-30 cm thick, but up to 40 cm in the Lake Louise region. The reactive slabs were found on the lees of features on all aspects running far for their size on underlying crusts.
The new snow may sluff easily off of hard steep surfaces and knock you off your feet.. We may see loose dry avalanches triggered with solar input as skies clear for Wednesday. This may be enough to trigger the fresh windslabs in alpine terrain.
Up to 5 cm is forecasted for Tuesday night bringing storm totals to 10-20 cm coupled with strong SW wind. Wednesday, as the system departs, expect cloudy skies with sunny periods and isolated flurries. Temperatures will remain cool (-4C for an alpine high for Wednesday)
5-10 cm of new snow fell on Tuesday with strong SW wind. This overlies the previous surface of 10-20 cm of facetted snow over a varying thickness crust that exists on all aspects except high elevation north (>2500m). There is widespread wind effect in the alpine. Multiple crusts exist within the mid-pack on all aspects/elevations except high north.
Poor visibility today, but we suspect some natural avalanches to have occurred. Ski hill forecasters report ski cutting touchy wind slabs 10-40 cm thick on all aspects that ran far for their size on underlying crusts. Cornices continue to be of concern with several natural and skier triggered cornice failures occurring over the past week.
