It's getting warmer, but only a little. Expect cornices and the upper snow pack to remain brittle, and susceptible to triggers for some time.
Recent windslab activity has been noted in high elevation windloaded features. It seems to require a large trigger such as cornice failures to initiate or potentially a shallow location where a skiers weight may be enough.
Cold temperatures are making cornices brittle and prone to failure. Keep a healthy distance away both when traveling below, or near corniced features.
Surface snow continues to lose cohesion and structure making specific areas susceptible to light triggers like direct solar influence, and excitable riders. Sluff awareness and management will be very important in steep and/or confined lines.
The cold will ease off a bit (high -17), with ridge top winds increasing to 30-40Km/h from the East, before returning to a more typical westerly flow and milder temperatures on Sunday
The cold weather continues to promote facetting of the upper 40cm. The mid-pack has remained strong and supportive, but is showing signs of loosing strength with the prolonged arctic influence, especially where it is shallow.
Thursday's field patrol to the Icefields noted numerous windslabs in the high alpine, cornice triggered, 50-90cm deep and 48-72 hours old. A widespread loose dry cycle up to size 2 occurred more recently, all elevations, steep rocky terrain, with some being triggered by the sun, but not all.
