Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain

Overnight: Variable cloud with light winds and freezing down to valley bottoms. Tuesday: Mix of sun and cloud with light to moderate southwest winds and daytime freezing up to 1500 metres. Wednesday: Overcast with a few cm of new snow in the afternoon. Moderate southwest winds and daytime freezing up to 1700 metres. Thursday: 3-5 cm of new snow above 1300 metres. Winds becoming light with a chance of sunny breaks in the afternoon.

On Sunday natural cornice falls released up to size 2.5, and one pulled an unsupported slope resulting in a deep slab release. There were also several reports of skier controlled and accidentally triggered storm slabs up to size 1.0.

10-30 cm of recent snow now overlies a crust below about 2100 metres (higher on solar aspects) and moist snow below about 1800 metres. Below the new snow interface, storms over the past week brought 40-60 cm of snow to the region. Several other crusts as well as moist snow are likely to exist within this storm snow, mainly at lower elevations and on solar aspects. Moderate to strong southwest winds during and since the storm formed wind slabs on leeward slopes as well as fragile cornices along ridgelines. 90-130 cm of accumulated snow now overlies a more widespread rain crust below 2000 m and sun crust on solar aspects at higher elevations. At higher elevations, the February weak layers are down 160 cm to over 2 metres and the deep mid-December facet layer and November rain crust both still linger near the bottom of the snowpack. These layers were active during a storm in mid-March and produced some very large avalanches. Occasional deep releases continue to be reported and these deeply buried weaknesses remain a serious concern as solar radiation and warming temperatures begin to penetrate the snowpack at increasingly higher elevations.