West Slopes North

Avalanche danger is generally low, but remain alert for triggering small, isolated avalanches if you venture into steep, high-consequence terrain Saturday. Snow surfaces are crusty and make travel more difficult on the southerly half of the compass, but true north slopes are still clinging on to light, dry snow. 

The only avalanches that were reported in the last few days have been human-triggered loose dry avalanches on steep, north-facing terrain. Stay aware of them, and they're usually manageable. A loose dry avalanche, or small isolated wind slab that you trigger if you're entering a chute, could be more challenging to escape from if it catches you. Keep heightened awareness if you're planning on traveling in higher consequence areas such as the aforementioned locations, or other hazardous spots such as above cliff bands. Especially at upper elevations, we've had limited observations and there's the odd chance you could still manage to trigger a slab avalanche. Winds shift on Saturday, but they aren't expected to be strong enough to redistribute snow into reactive slabs.  

Cold, low-density snow began falling on Friday 4/8, coating a thick moist layer (the 4/8 crust) and the last snowfall was on Tues 4/12. The 4/8 crust now lies 30-100cm deep. Our avalanche problem was mainly loose dry avalanches. Directly north-facing slopes are still hanging onto the powder, but a sunny spell on Wednesday moistened snow on the southerly half, which is now coated with a crust, making travel far less pleasant.

Widespread surface hoar was reported in the Baker backcountry on Friday. It was mostly destroyed, except on north aspects. We're expecting to get a couple inches of snow Saturday, which could cover the lingering surface hoar. Continued unsettled weather and a few inches of snow every day or two is forecasted in the coming days. This could be enough snow for a slab to fail on buried surface hoar, something we're keeping on our radar looking forward. If you're out enjoying the late winter conditions on this Easter weekend, don't hesitate to flick us an observation on THIS page. Whether you see avalanches or not, we'd be happy to get information and/or photos- of a crust, low density snow, surface hoar, or something else relevant to snow and avalanches.