Avalanche Forecast

Good

Monday: Mix of sun and cloud. Light west winds. Freezing level 2600m.Tuesday: Cloudy with intermittent flurries. Light gusting to moderate northwest winds. Freezing level 1600m.Wednesday: Cloudy with sunny periods. Intermittent flurries possible. Light west winds. Freezing level 1800m.

Recent reports indicate explosives triggered activity to size 2.5 on primarily east and north aspects. Expect to see continued loose wet natural activity on solar aspects as the sun continues to shine and freezing levels rise on Monday.

Mainly sunny weather and the freezing level reaching up to 2100m has created moist snow and/or a crust on all aspects and elevations except for high elevation north-facing terrain. This has helped to settle out the past week's storm snow accumulations. Moderate west and northwest winds have redistributed what little dry snow still exists at upper elevations into wind slabs immediately lee of ridge crest.Three persistent weak layers exist in the highly variable snowpack of the Purcells:The mid-March sun crust/surface hoar layer down 50-80cm still has potential for human-triggering in isolated areas. The early-March crust/facet/surface hoar layer down around 80-120cm has become less susceptible to human triggering, but still has the capacity to produce large avalanches.The mid-February crust/facet/surface hoar combo is typically down 60 - 120cm. Direct triggering of this layer has become unlikely, however, cornice fall, a smaller avalanche in motion or prolonged warming may wake this layer up, which would result in very large and destructive avalanches.Weak basal facets exist in many areas, but triggering is unlikely.