Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to the number of field observations

A dry ridge of high pressure will bring mainly clear skies for Tuesday. On Wednesday the ridge will flatten-out allowing for a weak pacific system to bring light snowfall for Wednesday and Thursday. Ridgetop winds are forecast to be moderate from the west on Tuesday, and then become strong and southwesterly with Wednesday's system. Freezing levels will shoot to about 2700m on Tuesday, and then drop to about 1200m on Wednesday and Thursday.

No new avalanches have been reported. With forecast warming and solar radiation on Tuesday, I would expect a round of loose wet avalanche activity with potential for cornice falls and wet slab avalanches.

Generally light amounts of recent snowfall overlie a hard crust which extends to about 1800m. The recent accumulations may exist as a wind slab in high elevation lee terrain. The melt-freeze crust is adding considerable strength to the snowpack, although warming may weaken the crust allowing for surface avalanches to fail more easily. About 15 to 30cm below the surface you may find weak surface hoar which was buried on February 10th. Although recent warming may have destroyed this potentially weak layer in some areas, I'd dig down and test for this layer, especially at upper elevations where colder temperatures may have allowed for this weakness to persist. In general, the mid and lower snowpack are strong and well-settled. Further north in the region, freezing levels are reported to have been lower during recent storms. In these areas deeper persistent weaknesses are more likely to exist.