Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to limited field observations on Monday

Precipitation is expected to increase during the day on Sunday with about 3-5 mm forecast by Monday morning. Winds are expected to increase to moderate from the southwest, and the freezing level is expected to rise to about 2300 metres on Sunday and drop to 2000 metres by Monday morning.

Natural moist and wet loose snow avalanches were reported from Friday up to size 2.0, some wet slab avalanches were also reported. Moist and wet loose avalanches continued to release on Saturday from solar exposed aspects.

On Thursday, moderate to locally heavy accumulations formed wind slabs at treeline and above on a variety of temperature-affected surfaces that include well settled powder, wet grains and crust sandwiches. 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, although avalanches releasing on this layer represent an extremely low probability-high consequence scenario. Cornices in the region are very large. With spring temperatures, and direct solar radiation these are more likely to become weak and fail. They could provide a large enough trigger to release deep layers on slopes below. Average snowpack depth in the alpine remains in the 3 m range.