It will almost feel like summer for the next couple days. The heat and sunshine will cause the avalanche danger to rise during the day, especially on solar aspects. Choose terrain carefully.
Summary
Confidence
High
Weather Forecast
THURSDAY: Mainly sunny. The freezing level shoots up to 3400 m. Winds should ease to light and variable. FRIDAY: Mainly sunny. The freezing level stays well above 3000 m and winds should remain light. SATURDAY: A mix of sun and cloud. The freezing level could drop to 2800 m and winds could kick up to moderate from the west.
Avalanche Summary
Several small (size 1) storm slabs were triggered in steep convex-shaped north-facing terrain on Tuesday. Lousy weather and poor conditions may have limited observations on Monday and Tuesday. As we move back to warm and sunny weather I would expect renewed loose wet activity on solar aspects, natural cornice falls, and isolated large persistent and wet slab avalanches.
Snowpack Summary
20-30 cm of new snow sits on melt-freeze crust with westerly winds forming fresh wind slabs in exposed lee and cross-loaded terrain. The March 22nd rain crust is buried 50-60 cm deep up to around 2000 m. We could see more activity on this layer when temperatures soar later in the week. The late February persistent weak layer is now down 60 to 120 cm below the surface. While it may be a concern in isolated terrain, it would probably take a large trigger like a cornice fall or surface avalanche in motion to provoke it. The lower elevation snowpack (below 1500 m) is moist and isothermal.