Anticipate finding wind slabs on all aspects. It has begun to warm in the alpine, expect the likelihood of human triggered avalanches to increase.
Recent new snow and new south westerly winds are promoting fresh wind slab development on top of older wind slabs and/or weak faceted snow.
This facet crust overlies a melt freeze crust below elevations of 2000 meters.
On Friday ski cutting and explosive control continued to produce small persistent slab avalanches. A notable small naturally trigger avalanche was observed in a backcountry location adjacent to the Castle ski area. There was an explosives triggered size 2 wind slab avalanche reported on Thursday in the southern portion of the region. This ran on facets buried in early January.
Recent new snow has accumulated over faceted snow and/or previously wind-affected snow. Expect current south west wind to transport this new snow onto north aspect lee terrain. At treeline and below there is a weak layer of facets over a crust, down 40 to 80 cm. This layer was reactive to skier triggering primarily on east aspects between 1500 and 2000 m last week in the south of the region.
The mid and lower snowpack contains a series of crusts and faceted snow.
The height of snow at treeline is roughly 80 to 150 cm.
Saturday Night
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries, west alpine wind 20 to 50 km/h, treeline temperature -7 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with 1 to 2 cm of snow, southwest alpine wind 15 to 30 km/h, treeline temperature -1 °C.
MondayMostly cloudy with isolated flurries, southwest alpine wind 10 to 30 km/h, treeline temperature -1 °C.
TuesdayMostly cloudy with isolated flurries, southwest alpine wind 10 to 30 km/h, treeline temperature -1 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
