Continued wind and a bit of new snow is in the forecast. If forecasted snow on Saturday/Sunday comes true, treeline hazard may bump up in some areas...
Moderate to strong W winds have formed wind effect and fresh wind slabs in the alpine and treeline elevations. These wind slabs have been reactive to skier triggering.
The lower snowpack is comprised of weak facets and depth hoar with the upper snowpack forming a 40 to 90 cm thick slab above the weakness. Human triggering on this layer remains a concern.
Lake Louise snow safety team noticed several size 1 windslabs and 1 size 2 on a reloaded bed surface. All of these were on north through east aspects in alpine terrain.
Moderate to strong west winds have formed wind effect and fresh wind-slabs at alpine and tree-line elevations. The upper snowpack has a weak interface down 20-40 cm on the Jan 4 surface hoar/suncrust layer. The Nov 16 deep persistent layer is down 40-90 cm and continues to produce variable sudden test results. The mid and lower pack is weak in eastern regions and more supportive in western areas.
Strong SW flow over the next few days with most of the moisture falling to the west of our region. Freezing levels rising to ~ 1400m daily throughout the period.
Friday: Alpine winds extreme from the SW. Light flurries starting in the afternoon.
Saturday: Alpine winds decreasing to strong from the W. 5-10 cm snow possible with higher amounts in western areas.
Sunday: Alpine winds ease to moderate from the SW, with up to 5 more cm of snow.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast
