New surface instabilities cover a stable snowpack.
Watch for snow amounts, wind loading, and daytime warming.
Back off steep terrain if signs of instability are observed.
New snow is likely settling and consolidating over wind affected surfaces and/or melt freeze crusts. Storm slabs will be larger and more reactive in the northeast of the region where up to 20 cm of new snow can be found.
Strong solar radiation will likely trigger wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes, especially in areas where new snow is seeing sun for the first time. Releases for the most part should be small, limited to new snow accumulations.
Several small loose dry avalanches were reported on Sunday and we suspect a similar trend occurred on Monday.
Going forward, solar radiation will likely continue to trigger loose snow avalanches where new snow is seeing sun for the first time.
Up to 25 cm of new snow has buried a thin melt-freeze crust now found on solar aspects, or otherwise added to 10 to 25 cm of snow, which was affected by moderate winds a few days ago. This formed wind slabs on lee aspects at upper elevations and scoured some windward slopes to the crust below.
The recent snow sits on a crust from early March that is 5 to 20 cm thick in most locations. It may become thinner at upper elevations.
The mid and lower snowpack is well settled and strong in most areas.
Monday Night
Clear skies. 10 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.
Tuesday
Mix of sun and clouds. 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Wednesday
Mix of sun and clouds. 3 to 10 cm of snow. 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 5 cm of snow. 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
