Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to the number of field observations

Monday should bring warm, dry weather with light winds. The freezing level climbs to 2600 m.

On Friday, a helicopter remotely triggered a small slab on a wind loaded feature. It failed on the buried April weak layer. A skier remotely triggered a size 1 avalanche on a high north aspect on Thursday. It failed on facets down 20 cm. A naturally-triggered size 2 slab was also observed. Explosives have triggered several size 2 cornice falls over the last few days. On Wednesday, natural solar-triggered avalanches to size 2 were reported. Explosives triggered several slab avalanches and a skier triggered a size 1.5 on a convex roll feature. A remotely triggered avalanche was also triggered from 25 m away. Several remotely triggered avalanches have been reported in the last week from up 100m away. Avalanche activity is expected to continue as temperatures rise.

Warm temperatures and strong sun are rapidly changing the upper snowpack. The snow surface is likely to become moist by day on most aspects and elevations. Overnight refreezing may form surface crusts. Watch out when there is no overnight refreeze: rapid weakening during the day is likely.A troublesome weak layer is down 20-60cm. This layer consists of surface hoar and facets overlying a melt-freeze crust. The distribution of the layer is variable, and it may be more problematic in the north of the region. In exposed alpine terrain, recent strong SW winds formed wind slabs in leeward features. Large cornices exist and may become weak with daytime warming. There are three dormant persistent weak layers that we are continuing to track. The late-March crust is down 50-70cm and was reactive last week during the warm period. The mid-March and mid-February layers are typically down between 70 and 100cm and have been dormant for several weeks. These layers have the potential to wake up with sustained warming, a significant rain event, and/or a big cornice fall.