Heads up-we have entered Spring Conditions. Conditions can change dramatically throughout the day.Start EARLY and finish EARLY!
Weather Forecast
Clouds rolling in this evening bringing wet conditions and cooler temps over the next few days. Expect typical moist April conditions.
Snowpack Summary
Warm temps and high fzl have added load to upper snowpack. At treeline, lee aspects have a series of windslabs sandwiched with thin weaknesses in the upper snowpack. A strong midpack bridges over weak basal facets on Northerly aspects at treeline and above.
Avalanche Summary
Numerous loose wet avalanches to size 2.5 noted today at most elevations- some running on crusts and others scouring to ground. Cornice failures to size 2.5 have occurred around the Icefields area on North to East aspects. They did not initiate a slab on the slopes below.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.