Avalanche Forecast

We can expect reasonable overnight temperature recovery both Thursday and Friday night before a wave of very warm air crashes into the South Rockies Saturday.  FRIDAY:  Freezing level beginning at 1500 m, rising to 2500 m in the afternoon, mostly clear skies, some cloud building in the afternoon, no significant precipitation, light to moderate southwest wind.  SATURDAY: Freezing level beginning around 2000 m, climbing to 2500 m in the afternoon, scattered cloud cover, no significant precipitation, light to moderate southwest wind.  SUNDAY: Freezing level beginning around 2500 m, climbing to around 3500 m in the afternoon, no significant precipitation, clear skies, light variable wind.

No new avalanches have been reported in this region in the last few days, however loose wet avalanches to size 2.5 have been a regular occurrence over the last week.

Cornices are large, fragile, and could trigger deep slab avalanches that run to valley bottoms. Monitoring the overnight freeze of the snow surface is very important during the spring. If the snow surface does not freeze overnight or if the crust is only a few cm thick, the effect of daytime heating and solar radiation will weaken the snowpack much more quickly than it would if there is a well frozen thick crust. This is because the crust must first melt before the sun can weaken the snowpack. Deeply buried weak layers in the mid snowpack and near the ground still have the potential to wake up and become active with a rapid warm up. While unlikely, releases on these deeply buried weak layers would result in very large avalanches. Glide cracks are widespread, active, and best avoided. Low elevation and thin snowpack areas have become isothermal, meaning the snowpack is 0 degrees Celsius throughout. An isothermal snowpack is more prone to full depth wet slab avalanches during the heat of the day.