There is uncertainty with the speed of recovery of the snowpack. Maintain conservative terrain choices.
Where a melt-freeze crust has developed, this layer will be difficult to trigger. With uncertain freezing levels, areas of concern are steep, rocky terrain, where there is no melt-freeze crust.
A widespread natural avalanche cycle from Tuesday to Thursday involved buried weak layers deep in the snowpack.
Where a surface crust exists, these layers will be difficult to trigger.
Read the Forecaster Blog for an opportunity to reflect on this week's widespread avalanche activity.
Roughly 5 to 10 cm of accumulated recent snow buries a surface crust that can be found on most aspects and elevations, which becomes more supportive as you gain elevation.
The upper snowpack is a mix of refrozen and moist snow depending on elevation, over a generally settled mid-pack that sits on a persistent weak layer of facets from late January buried 70 to 120 cm deep.
Friday Night
Cloudy with scattered flurries, 3 to 5 cm. 15 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1300 m.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries, 2 to 5 cm. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1700 m.
Sunday
Partly cloudy. 10 to 20 km/h northeast wind. Treeline temperatures -1 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.
Monday
Partly cloudy, isolated flurries 2 cm. 10 to 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1700 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
