Hey there,
Worked two back to back day touring at Bow Summit, yesterday and the day before.
Lot's of wind both days consistently in the moderate to strong range.
Lot's of variability in test results over the two days. The newly formed windslabs above TL in the area were pretty touchy where the Jan. 6th layer was a bit more pronounced. On most lee loaded features, results were still in the easy range in our tests on the layer.
When I got there yesterday for the second day of work, I could see a portion of the triangular alpine face at the far north end of the area had avalanched sz. 2 overrunning the bench midway down the face and coming to within 50m or so of the treeline below. It had run sometime during the night. When we got the chance to ski up to the base for a look, the bed surface had almost completely reloaded, the crown was barely visible, and the debris below was continuing to fade away under the wind transported snow.
Heard a few whumpfs and had a bit of cracking around the skis as we transitioned to the more open features at and just above treeline. As the bulletin suggests, digging down and testing the interface below the new slabs would be a smart idea before exposing yourself to a feature or committing to a line.
Heads up out there.
Mike Trehearne
AG/ASG
Cloud Nine Guides