Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Friday

Thursday: Light snowfall intensifying in the evening / Moderate southwest winds / Freezing level at 900mFriday: Heavy snowfall / Strong southwest winds / Freezing level at 1000mSaturday: Light snowfall / Moderate northwest winds / Freezing level at 700m

Recent explosives control produced slab avalanches to size 2.5. The avalanches occurred on a variety of aspects at treeline and in the alpine and are suspected to have ruin on the February 12th interface. A recent natural cornice fall also pulled out a size 2 slab on the slope below.

Variable amounts of low density snow add to the recent storm slab that is between 20-50 cms across the region. These light accumulations may overlie wind slabs which formed a few days ago in the alpine and at treeline. The recent storm slab is expected to remain reactive where it is sitting on the weak surface hoar layer that was buried on February 12th. The recent storm slab has also been reactive on Southerly aspects where a sun crust formed during the period from February 8th-11th. Future loading on the recent storm may cause another cycle of natural activity, or an increased sensitivity to human triggers. There are older weak layers that are now buried down around 60-80 cms and also at about 110 cms. These layers have been unlikely to trigger by skiers, but they may still be sensitive to large loads like avalanches in motion or cornice fall.