Westerly winds have left there mark in Alpine and treeline areas with windslabs common in these areas. Sheltered terrain is still offering good skiing. Continue to avoid thin weak areas where its possible to trigger the deeper layers.
Stiff upper snowpack and/or a drummy feeling should put you on guard for windslabs. Be on alert as you transition into treeline features.
Thin areas as the locations where you may trigerred this weakness.
On Thursday a sz 2.5 skier/snowshoer remote avalanche was triggered from 1m away on a NW aspect at treeline on Little Chester peak. This avalanche had wide propagation and appearred to step down to the November crust/Ground in a few areas.
Another sz 3 avalanche was reported on Thursday near Burstall Pass that cross the valley floor burying the commonly travelled trail. Wind loading was the suspected trigger.
A thin dusting of snow has recently covered the surface hoar up to 2200m. In most open places at treeline and above the wind has eliminated this layer. The top 30-40cm wind slabs are widespread in the Alpine and open areas at treeline. This surface wind slab was producing a moderate shear on decomposed crystals on Friday at treeline locations. If you notice a drummy feel to the snowpack, consider the terrain you are connected to and or above. Stiff windslabs, if triggered, will travel across a feature and create a large avalanche. The November crust still lingers at the base of the snowpack down 170cm or so and is still a concern for triggering from thinner snowpack areas.
The winds are with us for a bit! We may see 4-5cm of snow over the next 24hrs but not a significant amount. Temperatures will continue to be above average around -5C. Click the link below for more forecast details
https://hpfx.collab.science.gc.ca/~fsg006/productviewer/ab/table/AB_Rockies_Forecast.html
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
