Rockies Conditions 03-Mar-17

I swear every weekend a system moves in and ruins all my prepared handy terrain tips to find secret pow stashes.

The Banff region is expecting a short but intense storm today which should bring around a foot between now and Saturday morning. Sounds good huh? The avalanche risk has also spiked and will taper off whenever the storm does. SW aspects will be wind blasted as strong gusts are expected above 2000m. By all accounts the skiing was quite good before this system moved in so I can only expect that it’ll continue to be good afterwards. Sound logic if you ask me. Reactive windslabs were reported in many areas so plan your routes carefully if you head out.

Kananaskis will not bear the brunt of this system and are only expecting around half a foot. However this will be blown around by moderate to strong winds which will load up the N/NE aspects good and proper. Earlier this week I was poking around there and saw multiple incidents of cornice collapses. I can only expect that more will go with this wind and loading so it wouldn’t be wise to be scooting around under any.