We will remain at an elevated danger rating for the time being. The upper snowpack continues to settle and strengthen, but this sits upon problematic weak layers that are not to be trusted.
If triggered, these are likely to step down to the persistent slab and then to the basal facets. May find isolated windslabs in open treeline features.
This sits upon weak faceted crystals, sun crust or a dense layer that are perfect for slab avalanches. This layer is not reacting well to new loading, or even re-loading from wind.
In Canmore the first bowl on EEOR naturally avalanche to size 3 on a NE aspect in the alpine. This propagated across the whole bowl and ran well in to the gully out of view. Suspect the trigger was wind loading at ridge height.
Mt Buller avalanche paths also had a large Size 3 natural that propagated across the whole feature. Suspect cornice trigger, but unconfirmed.
New snow heights vary between 60cm-100cm. Winds have been very light, however have started to pick up this afternoon. This snow is settling rapidly with the warmer temps. This new snow is overlying a crust from early March on the solar aspects and a mixture of facets and hard windslabs on more polar aspects. Windslabs have developed within the recent snow 10-30cm thick that are reactive to skier traffic. Deeper in the snowpack the problematic Jan 30th facet interface is down 60-90cm and commonly producing sudden collapse sheers at this interface. A failure in the windslabs will likely step down to the Jan30th interface. Conservative terrain choices that avoid being attached to a bigger piece of terrain is the way to go right now. Forecasters are sticking to low angle, well supported terrain only.
Tuesday: A mix of sun and cloud with isolated flurries. Alpine temperatures of -12
20km/h West wind
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
