Avalanche Forecast
Regions: South Columbia.
Confidence
Fair - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain
Weather Forecast
Saturday: Clear skies / light to moderate southwest winds / freezing level at 2000m Sunday: Light precipitation / strong southwesterly winds / freezing level at about 2800m Monday: light precipitation / strong southwest winds / freezing level at about 2800m
Avalanche Summary
Over the last few days, mostly loose wet avalanches to size 2 were reported in steep, sun-exposed terrain. Watch for continued wind slab activity as a result of Thursday night's storm as well as wet avalanche activity with warming forecast for the weekend.
Snowpack Summary
On Thursday night significant windslabs formed at higher elevations and now overlie light to locally moderate amounts of well-settled, temperature-affected snow that fell over the last week. Below the recent snow, spring weather has left us with a crust or wet grains at treeline and above while rain has continued to penetrate and weaken the isothermal snowpack at lower elevations. The mid-February buried surface hoar layer is down about 140-220 cm. The likelihood of avalanches failing on this layer has been very low due to cooler temperatures, however it may wake up with warming and the consequence continues to be very large destructive avalanches. Cornices in the region are very large and have may become weak with spring temperatures.
Avalanche Problems
Loose Wet
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: All elevations.
Likelihood: Very Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 5
Wind Slabs
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Likely
Expected Size: 1 - 4
Wet Slabs
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood: Possible - Likely
Expected Size: 2 - 6