Avalanche Forecast

Moderate -

SATURDAY: Mostly sunny with light west wind, freezing level up to 700 m, and alpine high temperatures near -10 C.SUNDAY: Cloudy with light flurries (4-8 cm of snow), light wind, freezing level up to 800 m, and alpine high temperatures near -8 C.MONDAY: Mix of sun and cloud with light wind, freezing level up to 600 m, and alpine high temperatures near -10 C.

Heavy snowfall resulted in a widespread natural avalanche cycle on Tuesday and Wednesday. Storm slabs in the size 2-3 range were reported on all aspects between 1700 and 2500 m. Southerly aspects were the most reactive with numerous large and very large (size 2.5-3.5) avalanches running on a recently buried sun crust. Avalanche activity continued following the storm, with a few size 2 natural storm slab avalanches reported on north and east aspects on Thursday. A cornice fall triggered a large slab avalanche with a 100 cm crown on a north aspect at 2600 m. A skier also remotely triggered a size 1 wind slab on a southeast aspect at 1900 m.While the natural cycle is tapering off, human triggered avalanches remain likely at treeline and above where the touchy late-March crust/surface hoar layer exists.

Another 10-20 cm of snow on Friday brings the weekly total to 60-100 cm. Storm snow was accompanied with moderate to strong winds from the southwest.The storm snow sits on an interface buried in late-March that consist of crusts at low elevations and on south aspects, and surface hoar on shaded aspects at higher elevations.Persistent weak layers from early January and mid-December are still being reported by local operators, but are generally considered dormant.