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 with some broken clouds further South. Flurries in the most southern parts of the region and nil further North. Ridgetop winds will blow light from the North and freezing levels will rise to 1500 m. Tuesday: Broken cloud cover and a chance of flurries. Ridgetop winds moderate from the NW and freezing levels will rise to 1700 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
No new avalanche activity reported.On Friday, reports of the new storm snow was sluffing from steep terrain up to size 2. With rising freezing levels and sunny skies, conditions can change quickly and avalanche danger will rise.
Snowpack Summary
At higher elevations up to 25 cm of new snow sits on a series of melt-freeze crusts (solar aspects) and some smaller surface hoar crystals (northerly aspects). Wind slabs exist on lee slopes and behind terrain features. Cornices are huge and will likely become weak with daytime warming. They threaten slopes below. Surface snow will likely become wet and deteriorate on solar aspects.Deeper in the snowpack (60-120 cm down) a weaker interface exists comprising of crusts, and surface hoar. Earlier this week, very large avalanches were reactive on this interface in the neighboring region. Be cautious and remain suspicious of steeper, high alpine slopes.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.
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.