<style type="text/css">
.p_CC664AAA { margin: 0px 0px 12px 0px;text-align: left;text-indent: 0pt;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } 
.s_3FE45715 { font-family: 'Arial';font-style: Normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 13.3333333333333px;color: #000000; } 
.s_B5813F7D { font-family: 'Arial';font-style: Normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 13.3333333333333px;color: #0000FF;text-decoration: underline; } 
</style><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">25-40cm of recent storm snow is settling into a slab in the upper snowpack. Winds have been strong from the north west through south west, creating reactive hard wind slabs (10-15 cm thick) in exposed locations on down wind features. </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ridevalemount/videos/1956079874420987/" target="_blank"><span class="s_B5813F7D">See here for a good video summarizing conditions near Valemount.</span></a><span class="s_3FE45715"> </span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">These accumulations overlie a mix of older wind slabs in exposed higher elevation terrain, a sun crust on steep solar aspects and surface hoar on sheltered slopes.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Below the snow surface, several persistent weak layers make up a troublesome snowpack. In the top 1-1.5 m of the snowpack, two surface hoar layers buried in January can be found. Expect to find at least one of these layers on all aspects and elevations.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Deeper in the snowpack (120-200 cm deep) is a facet/crust/surface hoar layer from December, most prevalent at and below tree line.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">Near the base of the snowpack is a crust/facet combo, most likely to be triggered from thin spots in the alpine.</span></p><p class="p_CC664AAA"><span class="s_3FE45715">All of these layers have produced large avalanches recently. The wide distribution and ongoing reactivity of these layers suggests that avoidance through choosing simple terrain is the best strategy.</span></p>