Skiing conditions have been excellent on sheltered northerly aspects.
Cornices are big and will fall down at some point. This could be enough to trigger a larger avalanche.
Snow and wind from last week formed wind slabs that may still linger in alpine terrain. We have had few reports of these lately but suspect there are still lingering pockets that may be reactive
A facet/crust interface from Jan is buried 70–180 cm deep. We are still seeing some hard, sudden test results at upper elevations (>2300m) where the Mar 20th rain crust does not exist. Large triggers like cornice falls or surface avalanches may trigger this layer.
Sunshine ski hill reported some small low density windslabs with the new snow in alpine and isolated treeline terrain. These were predictable and inconsequential.
Otherwise no new avalanches observed or reported.
A few cms of new snow sits on variable wind effected snow in alpine and treeline features. On solar aspects, a surface crust has formed, which is more pronounced at lower elevations. On polar aspects, 20–50 cm of snow overlies the March 20th rain crust, which exists below 2100–2300 m. Cornices are large and we are seeing regular failures.
The Jan 24th facet layer is buried 70–180 cm deep at treeline and in the alpine, with some tests still producing hard, sudden results
An upper ridge brings mainly benign weather for the next few days:
Friday: Mostly cloudy. 1 to 2 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy. 1 to 4 cm of snow. 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. 1 to 3 cm of snow. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
