Give the wind slabs a wide berth for the next few days. Ice climbs are shaping up even near the valley bottom. As temperatures might rise above zero in the lower elevations, ice climbers should watch for overhead hazards in form of loose wet sluffs or loose rock.Maligne Lake region has significantly less snow and lower hazard.
Strong to extreme southwesterly winds created a few wind slab layers over the last week. Winds slabs tend to be most reactive during and just after significant wind events, extra caution is advised on northerly features in the alpine and into the tree line.
The snow pack is very weak at the bottom. Natural activity has not been observed yet. Keep this on your radar as triggering remains possible with the shallow nature of the overall snowpack. This problem is of most concern in wind loaded alpine and tree line features, specifically below ridge tops.
Few small wind slabs observed in the last few days across the region. These slabs were found near ridge tops on northerly aspects.
The snowpack is 40-60cm deep and is weak and facetted. A surface hoar layer is down 15-20cm below 2300m. Strong winds have stripped exposed alpine and tree-line terrain and created wind-slabs in cross-loaded and lee features.
The Mountain Weather Forecast is available at Avalanche Canada https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
SundayCloudy with sunny periods. Precipitation: Nil. Alpine temperature: High -8 °C. Ridge wind southwest: 15 km/h. Freezing level at valley bottom.
