Kak-WOW Powder

Spent an awesome 5 days in Kakwa and rode in a variety of areas in the park. It was stormy pretty much the entire time with daily snowfalls of around 20-30cm. Winds were transporting a lot of snow in the alpine and upper treeline areas creating slabs in lee pockets and building up cornices. Visibility was limited for most of our time there due to the weather, but we saw fresh debris from large avalanches and heard several slides coming down as well. Our snow profiles showed that the storm snow seemed to be bonding well below treeline so our main concern was for steep, open, and wind-loaded slopes in the alpine and treeline. We also avoided hanging out below any large overhanging cornices as we saw lots of evidence of those breaking off and sometimes triggering slides below. We saw no evidence of persistent weak layers in the area, so hopefully once it stops storming and all the new snow finally has a chance to bond for a couple of days, the hazard should go down quickly. In the meantime we founds lots and lots of great riding in safe terrain!