Conservative terrain selection is highly recommended.
Choose gentle, low consequence lines and avoid overhead hazard, especially during periods of sun.
Several persistent weak layers exist in the upper meter of the snowpack. The greatest concern for triggering these layers lies in areas where a thick, supportive crust is absent under the new snow.
Up to 40 cm of new snow has fallen in the region and is expected to take a few days to bond. Storm slabs may overload deeper weak layers causing large and destructive avalanches.
Tues/Wed: Several size 1-1.5 natural and skier-triggered storm and wind slab avalanches occurred.
Mon: A few natural and skier triggered storm slab and wind slab avalanches were reported up to size 2.5 (very large). Some of these avalanches stepped down to persistent weak layers.
Looking forward: Storm slabs are expected to remain reactive and may step down to deeper persitstent weak layers.
15 to 40 cm of new snow fell in the last storm creating widespread and reactive storm slabs. The new snow may overload persistent weak layers in the upper to mid snowpack. There is strong potential for storm slabs to step down to these deeper layers which include:
Facets/surface hoar/crust from early March buried 25-50 cm.
Facets/surface hoar/crust from mid-February buried 40-90 cm
Facets/surface hoar/crust from late January buried 80-120 cm.
The rest of the snowpack is well settled with no other layers of concern.
Thursday Night
Cloudy with 0 to 15 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.
Friday
Mix of sun and cloud. 15 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy with 5 to 15 cm of snow. 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 15 km/h variable ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
