Ski quality is good where you can find the 10-20cm of dry surface snow over the generally supportive crust. Avoid thick to thin locations as being the potential trigger spots. Human triggered avalanches are possible.
Thick to thin snowpack zones and areas where buried crusts are not supportive are the potential trigger locations. Crusts are generally down 30-90 cm with a layer of weak facets above.
Wet loose avalanches potential increases if the sun is present particularly on steep solar rocky terrain at all elevations. Small point releases can gain mass quickly. Temperatures range from +8 at Maligne to +4 at Coleman telemetry. Plus temperatures are occurring 11am to 5pm.
Weak basal depth hoar makes up the bottom of the snowpack. This is a low probability but high consequence problem. Stay away from weak, rocky, shallow location where triggering this layer is more likely.
Sunday's Maligne patrol noted no new activity. A group of 7 skiers on Sunday at Icefield's Boundary peak area remote triggered a size 2 slab from 100m away. The avalanche occurred in a thin rocky spot, alpine, N aspect, 2250m elevation, 35 degree slope, and slid on the Feb 3rd layer. The group triggered it from the bench above. A few other size 2's were noted over the weekend from Bow Summit area.
A thin sun crust is present on steep solar slopes at all elevations. Elsewhere has about 10cm of soft snow on top of a 2-10cm melt freeze crust. The Feb 3rd crust interface is down 35-60cm. Basal depth hoar and Facets make up the bottom of the snowpack. HS ranges from 50 to 150cm.
Mountain Weather Forecast is available @ Avalanche Canada https://avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
Monday night will be clear and a good freeze at -9 °C. Expect Tuesday to bring flurries, -5 °C, and 1600 metres freezing level. Flurries, 6cm of snow and or rain at lower elevations, and freezing level of 1600 metres is forecasted for Wednesday and Thursday.
