Avalanche Forecast

Fair

On Sunday, a ridge of high pressure should keep the region mainly dry. A mix of sun and cloud is expected with freezing levels around 1000m and light-to-moderate alpine winds from variable directions. On Monday, mainly cloudy conditions are expected with light winds and freezing levels around 1500m. Tuesday should be similar but freezing levels may reach over 2000m.

On Friday, widespread natural activity up to size 3 was reported in parts of the region. This was in response to very warm temperatures and strong sun. These avalanches were mainly in the alpine and were reported on all aspects. However, the largest avalanches were reported from north aspects. Much of this activity was releasing on the mid-February layer down 30-60cm. On Sunday, touchy wind slabs are expected in the alpine and it may still be possible to trigger wet sluffing at lower elevations. There is a still a concern for avalanches to step down to deeply buried weak layers resulting in larger persistent slab avalanches.

At higher elevations, new snow sits over a variety of surfaces including moist snow, crusts, wind affected surfaces, and/or old wind slabs which may still be reactive. Rain has soaked the upper snowpack to around treeline elevation. In the alpine, strong winds during the storm have redistributed the new snow into wind slabs in leeward terrain features. Prior to the storm, 30-60cm of snow was sitting over a weak facet/crust layer that was buried in mid-February. The late-Jan crust/surface hoar layer (over 1m deep) and the mid-January surface hoar (around 1.5m deep) have been dormant for several weeks but now have the potential to wake-up with the current warm temperatures and new storm loading.