Extreme winds have stripped many areas in the park bare of snow and deposited it into gullies and lee features. Expect to find wind slabs wherever snow has been deposited.
It's early season and many hazards exists below the snow for people trying to get out skiing.
There’s enough snow in the alpine to build up in lee features and steep gullies. A shallow snowpack and early season hazards can easily turn a minor slide into a bad situation.
A few small loose dry avalanches were observed in the Alpine on Saturday.
How to navigate Early Season Conditions
Our field team ventured out to Hilda Ridge on Saturday and found generally supportive travel. Early season hazards exist with snow just covering rocks & trees.
Treeline has 30-55cm of snow. Recent extreme winds have scoured much of the alpine and deposited snow into gullies and lee features making for great variability in snow depth. Alpine bowls & steep gullies are classic spots for early season avalanches.
Winds in the alpine will remain strong for the next few days but have tapered off from the extreme winds that occurred on Monday. The Icefields is expecting light amounts of precipitation early in the week with potentially up to 20 cm of snow coming on Wednesday evening and Thursday during the day.
For updated forecasts go to Jasper National Park Forecast.
