Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Freezing levels are uncertain on Thursday

Overnight and Wednesday: Freezing levels dropping to valley bottoms overnight and rising to about 1700 metres during the day. A mix of sun and clouds with light Northwest winds and a chance of localised flurries.Thursday: Overnight freezing down to valley bottoms and then rising up to 1900 metres. Light Southwest winds developing to moderate by afternoon and strong in the evening. Broken skies in the morning becoming mostly cloudy in the afternoon.Friday: Little or no freezing below 1500 metres. Mostly cloudy with moderate to strong Southwest winds and flurries or periods of snow in the afternoon.

Explosives control work has resulted in storm slab avalanches up to size 2.0. No new natural avalanches reported. I suspect that strong solar radiation may have resulted in loose moist or wet snow avalanches on steep Southerly aspects.

Up to 35cm of recent new snow sits on top of a melt-freeze crust formed on March 25 on all aspects except steep north at tree-line and above. There is now 60 - 90cm of new snow on top of the March 10th crust. This crust is widespread to 2000m across the region, perhaps even higher on solar aspects. There are reports of the crust being as thick as 15cm in the south of the region, however there seems to be variability in how thick and supportive it is. As you head north in the region where the mountains are higher (temperatures were colder when the crust was forming) this crust is less likely to exist. If you are heading to the north of the region make sure you check out the South Columbia bulletin also.A facet/crust persistent weakness buried at the beginning of February, now down 70 - 200cm, has been highly variable in terms of reactivity. In areas where the strong and supportive crust exists, triggering this layer has become unlikely. That said, any avalanches triggered on this deep persistent layer would be large and destructive.