During periods of high hazard, avoid all avalanche terrain.
We expect a large natural avalanche cycle with snow, strong winds, and buried weak layers.
A weak layer from early March is now 100 to 180 cm deep with January and February layers buried 150 to 250 cm. These weak layers remain a concern, especially in northerly alpine terrain.
Storm snow and strong southwest winds will form touchy storm slabs. Expect to find deeper and more reactive deposits on north- and east-facing slopes at upper elevations, where the wind will load lee slopes.
Looking ahead, we expect a large natural avalanche cycle to occur with snowfall and strong winds.
On Saturday, natural and explosive-triggered cornices failed up to size 2.
On Friday, numerous human-triggered size 1.5 storm slabs occurred in the alpine and upper treeline. An explosive-triggered size 2 storm slab was reported on the early March melt-freeze crust, on an east-facing slope in the alpine.
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25 to 45 cm of new snow will form touchy storm slabs and be redistributed into deeper deposits on north- and east-facing slopes. This overlies 50 cm of recent snow and then wind-affected hard surfaces at upper elevations or a melt-freeze crust on southerly slopes and at lower elevations.
A weak layer formed in early March found down 100 to 180 cm, consists of a crust on all aspects except high north-facing slopes. In some areas, a layer of surface hoar is found just above the crust.
Weak layers formed in mid-February and late January are now buried 150 to 250 cm deep.
Below this, the snowpack is well-settled and strong.
Saturday Night
Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h south ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature -6 °C.
Sunday
Cloudy with 20 to 35 cm of snow. 50 to 70 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature -6 rising to 0 °C. Freezing level rising to 1500 m by 4 pm.
Monday
In the overnight period, 30 mm is expected, falling as snow above 1500 m.
Cloudy with 30 to 50 mm, falling as snow above 1500 m. 50 to 75 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature 2 °C.
Tuesday
Cloudy with 10 mm, falling as snow above 2000 m. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop winds. Treeline temperature 4 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
