Although we haven't seen the wind increase yet, they are still forecasted to increase to strong Friday night. This may create new windslabs and cause some loose dry avalanches.
The deep persistent problem remains the layer of greatest concern on large alpine slopes.
No significant wind occured on Friday, but it is still forecast to increase to strong Friday night through Saturday. If this occurs, we expect some windslab development in the lees of features.
The crust/facet layer from October 23, located just above the ground, is capped by a 50-80 cm slab. This layer has caused avalanches over the past week. The extent of the problem remains uncertain, but we advise exercising extra caution on steep, open alpine features.
Today, sunshine found thin windslabs in steep Northerly terrain that were reactive to explosives. Around Lake Louise, some loose dry avalanches were triggered by explosives in unworked terrain.
In the past week, we have seen several avalanches both natural and explosive triggered up to size 2 on the deep persistent layer. The common theme for these avalanches were North aspects in the alpine in steep or extreme terrain.
10-20 cm of snow from last week lies on an early-season snowpack measuring 50-90 cm at treeline. The main layer of concern continues to be the October crust near the ground, where facets and depth hoar are developing. Overall the snowpack is losing its support/cohesion with facet development.
Slightly warmer on Saturday with alpine temperatures around-10C. Westerly winds are forecast to increase to strong overnight Friday and into Saturday. Flurries are expected with the greatest amounts in the Northern part of the region (5-10 cm). See the image below for tables.
