Unprecedented early season storms demand an extra conservative approach to mountain travel. This is a time to measure your exposure to avalanche terrain extremely carefully. By Tuesday it will be time to avoid it entirely.
Recent steady snowfall, strong winds and now persistent warm temperatures should keep an 'all aspects and elevations' storm slab problem on your mind, even if instability is most pronounced in wind-loaded features.
Sunday night: Cloudy with continuing flurries bringing 5-15 cm of new snow. Possibility of localized enhanced accumulations. Moderate to strong west winds.
Monday: Clearing then clouding over in late afternoon. Moderate west winds, increasing overnight. Treeline high temperatures around -3.
Tuesday: Cloudy with increasing flurries bringing 10-20 cm of new snow, increasing overnight. Strong to extreme southwest wind. Treeline high temperatures around 0C with freezing levels rising to 1800 metres.
Wednesday: Cloudy with continuing snowfall bringing 10-20 cm of new snow and storm totals to 40-80 cm. Light to moderate southwest winds. Treeline high temperatures around -3 with freezing levels reaching 1500 metres.
A fatal avalanche involvement occurred in the Hasler riding area on Saturday. We have preliminary information that indicates a party of four snowmobilers were in the area when one person was caught in an avalanche and did not survive. This section will be updated as we receive additional information.
A Mountain Information Network incident report was posted on the same day and in the same general area as this fatal incident. It's unknown if the MIN report is describing this fatal incident or not. In either case, the photo and data in the MIN report provides valuable information about conditions in the region.
Saturday, a rider was caught in an avalanche in the Pine Pass area. Search and rescue response is ongoing, but no other details were available at the time of publishing.
There is evidence that an avalanche cycle occurred in the north of the region on Thursday. Avalanches ranged from size 1 to size 2.5, with the majority starting around treeline.
A steady storm pattern in the region has given the snowpack little time to stabilize between snowfalls, which means similar conditions will almost certainly prevail on Monday.
Recent winds have scoured exposed ridges, and loaded lee slopes with reactive wind slabs. This trend continued over Sunday night with yet another dose of snow and wind.
In areas sheltered from the wind, new storm slabs have been forming on all aspects.
At elevations below treeline that saw rain earlier in the week, the new storm snow will be covering a crust that formed overnight on Friday.
Recent observations suggest snow depths below treeline are around 75-100 cm with very little snow below 1400 m. Expect the alpine snowpack to be 150 cm or more.
In the Pine Pass area, expect to find a deeper snowpack than the rest of the region. The last storm dropped up to 80 cm of snow there over 2 days.
The lower snowpack mostly consists of a series of early season crusts. These appear to be strong, but shallow alpine slopes along the eastern side of the Rockies towards Jasper may have weaker, faceted snow near the ground.
