Travel conditions are rugged below 1600m on a firm, refrozen crust from the weekend storm.
The last two avalanche cycles have cleaned out many start zones. However, there are still slopes and features that haven't flushed out the persistent slab problem.
See the Avalanche Canada blog post for info on persistent slab conditions.
65cm of new snow, strong winds, and warm temps have created wind slabs. Snowpack tests today, around 2100m above Christiana Trees, found moderate to hard Resistant Planar results within the new storm snow.
With limited Alpine observations, there is uncertainty in the slab reactivity up high.
Two persistent weak layers are buried ~130 and ~170 cm down. Last weeks snow, combined with extreme winds, overloaded these layers triggering large, destructive avalanches. Be very suspect of slopes that haven't recently avalanched. These weak layers are still within human triggering depths.
Natural avalanche activity has dropped off with the cooling.
Artillery control on Sunday produced numerous avalanches from size 2 to 4. Of note, avalanche character changed to wet/loose below treeline with the rain and warm temps.
See the Avalanche Canada blog post for info on dealing with persistent slab problems. We are entering the "healing' stage. Avalanches are becoming less likely but the consequence will remain massive for the foreseeable future.
A widespread surface slab, 50-80cm in depth, blankets the region at Alpine and Treeline elevations. Below Treeline, the rain-soaked surface is now a firm crust with up to 10cm of new snow on top of it.
The Feb 9 and Jan 26 surface hoar (SH) layers are now buried 110-170cm deep. The Feb 9 SH sits over a crust on solar aspects. The Jan 26th layer is composed of very large surface hoar (up to 40mm), facets, and/or a crust.
Cool temps and convective cells will bring flurries and gusty SW winds to the region.
Tonight Flurries, 5cm. Alpine low -14°C. Freezing level (FZL) Valley bottom. Winds SW 20-35km/h.
Tues Scattered flurries, 5cm. Alp High -12°C. Wind SW 25-50km/h. FZL 500m.
Wed Snow, 10cm. Alp High -10°C. Wind SW 30-60km/h. FZL 800m.
Thurs Flurries, 5-10cm. Alp High -9°C. Wind W 30-55km/h. FZL 700m.
