The Public Avalanche Forecasts will come to an end on Monday. Starting Tuesday you can find spring messaging under the "Forecast Details" tab below.See you next season!
Confidence
Fair - Due to limited field observations
Weather Forecast
An upper ridge stalls off the coast bringing sunny skies and dry cool conditions through Tuesday. By mid-week freezing levels will rise to 2000 m.Monday: Mostly sunny skies. Ridgetop winds will blow light from the NW and freezing levels will rise to 1800 m. Tuesday: Broken cloud cover and a chance of flurries. Ridgetop winds moderate from the NW and freezing levels 1800 m. Wednesday: The stationary ridge of high pressure continues bringing sunny skies and freezing levels up to 2000 m. Ridgetop winds will blow light from the SW.
Avalanche Summary
On Saturday a size 2.5 cornice fall occurred and did not trigger a slab on the slope below. With rising freezing levels and sunny skies conditions can change quickly and avalanche danger will rise.
Snowpack Summary
Up to 15 cm of new snow sits on a variety of old surfaces and generally seems to be bonding. Wind slabs have built on lee slopes and behind terrain features. Cornices are huge and remain a concern, especially with daytime warming which will weaken them. Surface snow will likely become wet and deteriorate on solar aspects.Buried 60-100 cm down, exists an interface of crusts and buried surface hoar. This is mainly found at upper elevations on all aspects. It seems to be gaining strength but I would remain suspicious, especially of large, steep high-alpine slopes. Dig down, and test layer of concern.
Problems
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.