Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Due to the number and quality of field observations

A clearing trend is forecast for Tuesday but by Wednesday, a  Pacific low will deliver another round of moderate snowfall. Ridge top winds will decrease somewhat on Tuesday, and then become strong and southwesterly with Wednesday's incoming precipitation . Freezing levels will stay around the 1500M mark , but drop to around 500m on Tuesday, then rise again for Wednesday and Thursday.

There has been little avalanche activity reported given the amount of new snow and wind on Thursday and Friday last week. Size 1 soft slabs were reported to be sensitive to human triggering in high elevation lee terrain. Things should stabilize slowly given the warm temperatures, but incoming storms later in the week will likely spark another round of natural storm slab activity.

Just before the weekend, between 10 and 40cm of new snow fell with the highest accumulations occurring in the southwest of the region. The new snow and strong southwest winds built dense slabs on exposed lee features. Locally heavy snowfall and strong winds on Sunday and Monday morning will have added size and destructive potential to this developing storm slab. Below the recent storm snow you'll find a variety of interfaces including old hard wind slabs, hard crusts, surface hoar, and/or surface facets. Some reports suggest a reasonable bond at this interface, although I'd remain cautious of steeper, high-consequence slopes as a release on these recently buried surfaces could be large and destructive .At the base of the snowpack, weak facets may be found, particularly on alpine slopes in the north of the region. Cornices are reported to be large and potentially unstable.