Waterton Lakes

Use extra caution in wind effected lees, sheltered areas will also provide the better skiing.

Friday: Winds increasing through the day and into the night with partially cloudy skies. Temp rising to -5 in the alpine.

Saturday: Temps continue to rise to 0 in the alpine. Clear skies and winds decreasing from extreme to strong.

Sunday: Alpine temps dip just below 0 with flurries through the day. Moderate to strong SW winds.

M-S SW winds are forming windslabs up to 70cm deep, this overlies old windslabs and a March 3 rain crust. An additional 50 cm of settling snow over the Feb 15 crust that exists up to 2000m. Lower snowpack is well settled 1F to P. HS 250-300 cm near the continental divide.

A natural windslab cycle has occurred in the last 24h with results up to size 3. A size 2.5 windslab avalanche was observed at the south end of Forum ridge. It is suspected that this new avalanche failed on a re-loaded bed surface from the large size 3 last week. As always keep those Mountain Information Network observations coming.