Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Monday

Monday: Mainly sunny. Cloud increasing and snowfall starting in the evening. Light winds. Tuesday: Moderate to heavy snow. Freezing level near 400m. Strong south-westerly winds.Wednesday: Scattered convective snowfall. Light winds.

Last week was very active with natural avalanche activity, human involvements and close calls. Some were failing on the mid-February persistent weakness. The size and frequency of avalanches seems to have decreased slightly over the weekend as storm slabs and wind slabs slowly gained some strength. On Sunday, avalanches were triggered naturally and by explosives in steep, rocky terrain to size 2. Avalanche activity may increase again with solar warming on Monday, or with snow and wind on Tuesday.

Last week, 100-180 cm storm snow fell, accompanied by strong south-easterly to south-westerly winds. Storm slabs and wind slabs now appear to be slowly gaining strength. Cornices are large and threaten slopes below. A persistent weakness, formed in mid-February, continues to produce hard, sudden planar results in snowpack tests. The likelihood of triggering this layer has gone down, but very large avalanches remain possible, which could be triggered by a shallower avalanche or cornice fall. The average snowpack depth at treeline is 350 cm.