Hazard will rise to considerable in the alpine during peak daytime heating.
Use caution in wind loaded areas. Keep in mind that human triggering potential persists as natural avalanches taper off.
Strong southwest winds and 20-40 cm of dense storm snow have built wind slabs in alpine and treeline lees. Although natural avalanche activity has tappered off wind slabs remain possible to human trigger.
Be alert when the solar input feels strong. Even brief periods of direct sun could initiate natural avalanche activity.
The full impact of the march sun is slowly weakening cornices. It is very difficult to predict exactly when a cornice will fail. To manage uncertainty give cornices a wide berth and minimize your exposure time on slopes below them.
On Tuesday, a widespread natural storm slab avalanche cycle to size 2.5 was observed throughout the region. Many of these avalanches are suspected to have released during the storm on Monday night.
Explosive control produced numerous storm slab avalanches to size 1.5-2.5.
If you head out in the backcountry, let us know what you are seeing by submitting a report to the Mountain Information Network.
20-40 cm of dense, wind-affected storm snow in the alpine tapers to a rain crust below 1400 m. This storm snow sits on a sun crust on solar slopes and small surface hoar in sheltered, shaded areas.
The mid-snowpack is generally well-settled. The lower snowpack includes a layer of weak sugary crystals near the ground. These facets are slowly gaining strength and have not produced recent avalanche activity. We continue to track the layer and watch for any signs that it could wake up and produce very large avalanches.
Wednesday Night
Few clouds clear through the night. Chance of isolated flurries, trace accumulation. Alpine temperatures reach a low of -7 °C. Ridge wind northwest 20 km/h gusting 35 km/h. Freezing levels drop to valley bottom.
Thursday
Sunny. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -3 °C. Ridge wind northwest 15 km/h. Freezing levels rise to 1600 meters.
Friday
Sunny. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -2 °C. Ridge wind southwest 15 km/h. Freezing levels rise to 1800 meters.
Saturday
Sunny. Alpine temperatures reach a high of 0 °C. Ridge wind southwest 15 km/h. Freezing levels rise to 2000 meters.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
