Assess for wind slabs at higher elevations. Small avalanches could step down to a deeper layer and form large avalanches.
Assess for wind slabs in steep lee terrain features. Small wind slabs could step down to a weak layer over a hard crust buried around 50 to 100 cm deep, forming large avalanches.
A few small loose avalanches occurred on Thursday within storm snow. No new avalanches were observed on Wednesday.
Looking forward, wind slabs may remain reactive to human triggers in steep, lee terrain features at high elevations. Such avalanches could step down to deeper layers, forming large avalanches.
Recent snow and wind formed wind slabs in lee terrain features at higher elevations, which may take a couple days to bond to the snowpack.
Around 50 to 100 cm of snow overlies a hard melt-freeze crust from early April. This snow is slow to bond to the crust where pockets of weak surface hoar or faceted grains rest on the crust, which is most likely on northerly aspects at treeline and alpine elevations.
There are no deeper concerns at this time.
Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Friday
Cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 900 m.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy with 1 to 3 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1100 m.
Sunday
Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 1000 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
