Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Tuesday

Overnight: Clear with light winds and freezing down to valley bottoms. Tuesday: Mix of sun and cloud with light winds and daytime freezing up to 1500 metres. Wednesday: Overcast with increasing southwest winds and daytime freezing around 1900 metres. Thursday: A couple of cm of new snow in the morning, followed by light winds and a chance of sunny breaks. Daytime freezing may reach 2200 metres.

On Monday there were several natural cornice falls up to size 2.5 that released storm or persistent slabs from the northerly aspect slopes below. On Sunday there was a natural cornice fall size 2.5 from extreme terrain.

10-15 cm of recent snow now overlies temperature crusts below about 1900 metres and sun crust all the way into the alpine on solar aspects. This precipitation fell as rain below about 1600 metres. Below the new snow interface, storms over the past week brought 40-60 cm of snow to the region. Several other crusts as well as moist snow are likely to exist within this storm snow, mainly at lower elevations and on solar aspects. Moderate to strong southwest winds during and since the storm formed wind slabs on leeward slopes as well as fragile cornices along ridgelines. At higher elevations, the February crust/facet layer is now down around 130-150 cm and the deep mid-December facet layer and November rain crust both still linger near the bottom of the snowpack. These layers were active during a storm in mid-March and produced some very large avalanches. Occasional deep releases were also reported in late March and these deeply buried weaknesses remain a serious concern as solar radiation and warming temperatures begin to penetrate the snowpack at increasingly higher elevations.