Avalanche Forecast

High -

Wednesday night: Mainly clear. Light east winds.Thursday: Sunny. Light northeast winds. Alpine high temperatures around -1 with freezing levels to 2000 metres.Friday: Sunny. Light northwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around 0 with freezing levels to 2100 metres.Saturday: Mainly sunny with cloud increasing over the day. Light variable winds. Alpine high temperatures around 0 with freezing levels to 2100 metres.Overnight freezing levels will increase steadily during this period, dropping briefly each night to between 1000 to 1500 metres.

No new avalanches have been reported in the region, but reports from neighbouring regions showed new snow from Tuesday's storm reacting to skier traffic, ski cutting, and explosives control with 10-25 cm-deep slabs propagating easily over previous surface crusts. All aspects were represented in reports, with a focus on north to northeast aspects as a result of loading by southwest winds. Looking forward, lingering wind slabs may remain reactive to human triggering and may become touchier with daytime warming. Meanwhile, an ample supply of new snow is in place to reinvigorate loose wet avalanche problems as sunshine and warming take hold each day.

Up to 20 cm of new snow from Tuesday's storm accumulated above a surface of melt-freeze crust that exists in most areas above 1500 metres. Below this elevation the new snow buried variably moist or crusty surfaces. Precipitation as rain continued to saturate the snowpack that is increasingly isothermal (slushy and cohesionless) and disappearing rapidly below about 1100 metres.The remainder of the snowpack is generally consolidated and strong. Exceptions may exist on north aspects above 2000 m, where a gradually strengthening layer of faceted grains buried 40 to 70 cm deep may still be preserved below an overlying slab of old and hard wind-affected snow.