Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Saturday

FRIDAY: Unsettled conditions with isolated flurries, moderate becoming light southwesterly winds and freezing levels dropping to 1500 m.SATURDAY: Cloudy with flurries bringing another 5-10 cm overnight, light winds and freezing levels around 1300 m.SUNDAY: Cloudy with light flurries, light southerly winds and freezing levels around 1400 m.

Reports from Wednesday and Thursday morning include continued natural loose wet avalanche activity up to Size 2 at treeline and below. On Tuesday a 70 cm deep by 200 m wide Size 3.5 natural storm slab avalanche was reported that ran 1000 m from a south facing alpine start zone. On Sunday, explosives triggered numerous storm slabs up to size 2.5 as well as two deep persistent slabs up to size 3.5 which released down 200 cm, most likely on the November crust. Touchy new wind slabs are sensitive to light triggers and have the potential to step down and trigger persistent slab avalanches.

Expect to find 15-20 cm of fresh snow blown into touchy wind slabs at higher elevations, and wet and cohesionless rain-soaked snow at lower elevations, which should soon freeze into a solid crust. Rapidly settling storm snow from last week is still bonding poorly to the previous snow surface from early February, which is now down 60-80 cm and includes a sun crust on steep sun-exposed slopes, faceted snow, as well as surface hoar on sheltered open slopes. A persistent weakness buried mid January is now down 80-150 cm and the November crust is down around 200 cm. These deep persistent weaknesses appear to be waking up with the warmer temperatures and several avalanches have recently released up to 2 m deep.