Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to limited field observations

Friday: Light snowfall during the day intensifying to moderate in the late afternoon / Moderate to strong southwest winds / Freezing level at 1100mSaturday: Light snowfall / Moderate northwest winds / Freezing level at 1000mSunday: Trace amounts of snow with possible sunny breaks / Light northeast winds / Freezing level at 900m

Observations were extremely limited on Wednesday; however, numerous wet sluffs to size 1.5 were ski cut below 1900m on various aspects. A few naturals of the same size were also observed. I would expect storm slab activity at upper elevations in the wake of Wednesday's storm.

At upper elevations moderate to locally heavy amounts of new snow have been shifted into deeper windslabs by steady southwest winds. About 40-75cm below the surface you are likely to find a temperature/sun crust from last week's clear weather. At the same interface you may find a touchy layer of facets or surface hoar on shaded alpine slopes above ~2400m. Where they exist these weak crystals have been responsible for large remote triggers. The variable and reactive nature of this layer suggests that it may continue to catch people by surprise. At lower elevations (below 1600m) rain has continued to saturate the snowpack. Recent snowfall combined with wind have made large cornices bigger and more likely to fail.