Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Wind speed and direction is uncertain on Friday

Overnight: 5-8 cm of new snow with moderate west winds and freezing down to 800 metres. Friday: Overcast with another 3-5 cm of snow combined with moderate west winds and daytime freezing up to 1600 metres. Saturday: Overcast with flurries and moderate west winds and daytime freezing up to 1300 metres. Sunday: Mostly sunny with light winds and daytime freezing up to 1800 metres.

Two deep persistent natural avalanches size 3.5 were reported on Wednesday with fractures that were about 4 metres deep. The december surface hoar weak layer is expected to be the sliding layer. Natural avalanches up to size 3.0 were reported on Tuesday on south thru west aspects in the alpine, it was not mentioned if they were cornice triggered.

The new storm slab is 20-30 cm deep and arrived with east or southeast winds in most areas. The winds are forecast to change to the west, and this may result in some reverse loading and new wind slabs on several aspects. This new snow is sitting on another 30-60 cm of recent snow from the past week. The recent snow buried a mix of old surfaces that include melt-freeze crusts on all aspects at treeline and below, and on solar aspects in the alpine. Cornices are reported to be large and fragile, and reports of natural cornice falls continue on a regular basis. The February weak layers are now down about 170-220 cm and the deep mid-December facet layer and November rain crust both still linger near the bottom of the snowpack. These deep weak layers produced large avalanches with cornice falls and other heavy triggers in late March and early April. They remain an ongoing concern and may be more likely to fail on southerly aspects during periods of strong solar radiation.