Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Sunday night: Convective flurries bringing 5-15 cm of new snow. Light north winds. Monday: Mainly cloudy with lingering isolated flurries and a trace to 3 cm of new snow. Light variable winds. Freezing level to 800 metres with alpine high temperatures around - 9.Tuesday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Light southwest winds. Freezing level to 1100 metres with alpine high temperatures around -7.Wednesday: Cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow, increasing overnight. Light southwest winds. Freezing level to 1400 metres with alpine high temperatures around -5.

Reports from Saturday included numerous observations of storm slabs releasing naturally as well as with skier traffic and explosives control. Sizes ranged from 2-3, with crown fracture depths varying from 30-100 cm. This activity occurred on all aspects but was focused at alpine elevations. Wind slab releases made up a large number of observations, noted predominantly on southeast aspects.Widespread avalanche activity occurred in the top 30 cm of new snow on Friday. Numerous natural and skier triggered size 1 avalanches were reported, with the most reactive conditions on wind-affected slopes at treeline on north and east aspects.On Thursday, several size 1 skier triggered storm slab avalanches were reported. They were 30-50 cm thick and occurred on north and east aspects above treeline. One of the slabs subsequently triggered a larger size 2 avalanches that ran on the late-March crust. Some natural size 2-3 storm slabs avalanches were also reported in alpine terrain and a cornice fall on a north aspect in the Selkirks triggered a size 2.5 avalanche on an unidentified 2 m deep weak layer.

Light new snow amounts have begun to accumulate over wind-affected surfaces as well as a new crust on sun-exposed aspects. Below the surface, storm snow totals from last week reached 40-80 cm, with amounts that taper with elevation.The storm snow sits on an interface buried in late-March that consist of crusts below 1900 m and on south aspects, and surface hoar on shaded aspects at higher elevations.Pockets of surface hoar (buried mid-March) have been reported on shaded aspects at higher elevations and may be found approximately 60-80 cm below the surface.Deeper persistent weak layers from January and December are still being reported by professional observers, but are generally considered dormant.