Avalanche Forecast

Wednesday night: Clear. Light southwest winds, moderate in the alpine.

Thursday: Sunny. Light southwest winds, moderate in the alpine, increasing overnight. Alpine high temperatures around +3 with freezing levels reaching 2400 metres.

Friday: Mainly cloudy with isolated wet flurries in the alpine. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around 0 with freezing levels to 2000 metres.

Saturday: Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries. Moderate to strong southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -4 with freezing levels to 1600 metres.

No new avalanches were reported on Tuesday. 

Otherwise, wet loose avalanches in the size 1-2 range have been reported from alpine and treeline elevations over the past few days. A couple of recent cornice falls from the last week have been noted as well. Expect similar hazards to re-emerge with the heat of the day on Thursday.

The alpine may be wind affected in open areas. Snow on all solar aspects and lower elevation bands will start out crusty but will likely become moist by mid morning. Reports suggest snow on northerly terrain above 1600 m has so far remained dry. Cornices are large and looming, and glide cracks are increasing in size...both should be considered unpredictable and given a wide berth.

Around 30 to 50 cm of snow sits above a layer of sugary faceted grains that were buried in mid-February. In some areas, there may be an old layer of feathery surface hoar or facets from late January down 50 to 80 cm deep. There have been no reported avalanches on either of these layers in the region in the last 10 days, but there is always lingering concern that consecutive days in a row of warm temperatures may increase the reactivity of deeper weak layers in isolated areas.

• Avoid sun exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong, especially if snow is moist or wet
• Cornices become weak with daytime heating or solar exposure.
• Be alert to conditions that change with aspect and elevation.