I guided 2 days in Jasper for Jasper Hikes & Tours: Monday took us to Hilda and Tuesday was at Bald Hills. Moderate to strong winds in the Icefields area over the weekend created significant wind-effect on all wind-exposed features TL/ALP. Hilda had quite a bit of ski traffic over the past week which, combined with variable snow conditions made it challenging to find good, sustained ski pitches. Windslabs were our primary concern; however, we saw no signs of instability and felt the avalanche hazard was generally low where we traveled.

Bald Hills had significantly better snow conditions, although the snowpack is rather shallow. HS is 40cm at the parking lot and goes up to 85cm @ TL. The snowpack overall was quite weak and facetted, which made trailbreaking challenging and the skiing punchy. Our layer of concern was the DH/FC layer at the bottom of the snowpack. We had no reactivity on that layer in any of our tests; however, we definitely had concern for Deep Persistent Slabs in the Bald Hills area, especially triggering them at thin, weak spots near buried rocks (heat sinks). The best skiing was found in semi-sheltered terrain in the lower ALP where previous winds had created a supportive snowpack over the weak facet layer.

Weather was clear and sunny on Monday, cloudy with light precipitation by Tuesday afternoon. Winds were generally light from the South with air temperatures rising to above 0C by Tuesday afternoon. Enjoy the skiing everyone and let's hope we get some more snow tomorrow!