New snow and strong winds are expected to develop new wind slabs at upper elevation.
Winds have been variable throughout the region, but are expected to increase Sunday. Look for fresh wind slabs in the alpine and some exposed tree-line locations.
Buried crust/facet layers exist in the upper snowpack on solar aspects and all aspects below 1700m. Recent tests show moderate sudden planar results. Exercise caution in areas where these crusts exist, there is uncertainty about how they will react.
Increased snow fall Saturday night with accumulation amounts of 5-10cm by Sunday morning. Slightly cooler temps and clearing are forecasted for Sunday, this clearing trend will bring strong Westerly ridge winds.
20-50 cm of storm snow forming fresh wind slabs in alpine and some treeline terrain with mod-strong SW winds. On solar aspects a variety of buried sun-crusts down 30-60 cm are producing moderate results in tests. In addition there is a buried temperature crust at lower elevations that exists on all aspects, and has been reactive in Kootenay Park.
No new activity obs Saturday. Explosive control in Kootenay Park on Thursday produced small wind-slabs up to size 2.5. Of note in Simpson area is when debris hit lower elevations (1800-1600 m) it triggered new slabs down 50 cm on a suspected temperature crust. Propagations on this layer were significant and extended up to 100 m.
