Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Intensity of incoming weather systems is uncertain on Thursday

Only small amounts of snow on Wednesday with heavier snow fall (or rain) on Thursday-Friday. Freezing levels will slowly increase.WEDNESDAY: Snow (up to 5 cm, with more possible in the south) / Moderate south west wind / Alpine temperature -4 / Freezing level 500m rising to 1200m in the afternoon THURSDAY: Wet snow (10-20cm) or rain at lower elevations / Light to moderate south-west wind / Alpine temperature -3 / Freezing level 1400mFRIDAY: Cloudy with light flurries (5-10 cm possible in the morning) / Moderate south west wind / Alpine temperature -1 / Freezing level 1800m.

On Tuesday, fresh wind slabs were reactive to ski cuts - but limited to size 1 - on immediate down wind (lee) features. On Monday, explosives control work triggered only a few size 1 wind slab avalanches in isolated terrain up in the alpine. On Friday a sled-triggered size 2 wind slab was reported near Grizzly Lake near Powder Mountain, on a north west aspect near 1750m. See the MIN post for more details. A week ago there was a size 1 avalanche that sympathetically triggered a size 3 persistent slab avalanche resulting in a fatality. This was on a northeast aspect at 2000m, 50cm deep. Additionally there were reports of natural persistent slab avalanches size 2.5-3 on southeast through northeast aspects between 1800 and 2000m. These were reported to have happened in the previous 24-48 hours. See this MIN post for similar details.

We've been seeing regular amounts of light snow (2-10 cm each day) since Easter Sunday (with some locally higher amounts due to intense convective activity and gusty winds). Winds have been gusting strong, previously from the north and most recently the south.The end result is that snow conditions are wildly variable, with a skiff of new snow sitting on: melt freeze crusts on sunny aspects, scoured old hard wind slabs, isolated pockets of soft wind slab or soft snow giving decent skiing in some sheltered locations. See this MIN post for a good summary of conditions beyond the musical bumps. Old snow from a week ago rests on the March 21st interface, which has a very patchy distribution, but is mostly likely to be found on shady aspects between 1900m and 2250m. The March 21st interface has been giving variably moderate to hard resistant planar results, typically down 40-60cm on 1-2mm facets.The mid and lower snowpack are strong and well settled.