Rising freezing levels, mixed precipitation, and moderate wind are creating dangerous avalanche conditions.
Continually assess as you travel, and stick to conservative terrain.
Persistent weak layers of crust/facets or surface hoar are buried in the upper 250 cm of the snowpack. Distribution seems spotty and signs of instability may not be evident. The best defence is choosing smaller, low-consequence terrain.
New snow and moderate southerly wind are building storm slabs at upper elevations where precipitation is falling as snow. Storm slabs are likely to be more reactive in lee terrain features. Buried wind slabs may also remain reactive.
Numerous wet loose avalanches were reported on Saturday during the rise in freezing levels.
In the last week of March, a couple of natural wind slabs, size 2-2.5 were observed on north and east aspects in the alpine.
Persistent slab activity has tapered in the last week, but the snowpack structure remains suspect.
Mixed precipitation starting as rain and switching to snow with dropping freezing levels has deposited up to 20 cm of snow in the alpine, at treeline and below moist surface snow is expected. This new snow will be redistributed by moderate south wind creating more reactive storm slabs in lee features.
This further buries various previous surfaces: a sun crust on solar aspects, faceted snow in sheltered northerly aspects and surface hoar.
Below this, A layer of facets and/or surface hoar from earlier in March can be found 50 to 100 cm deep.
Several persistent weak layers are buried up to 250 cm deep. While triggering these layers is becoming unlikely, they present a low-probability, high-consequence problem.
Sunday Night
Cloudy. 4 to 10 mm of rain at treeline. 40 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -1 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.
Monday
Cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 800 m.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 5 cm of snow. 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Wednesday
Mix of sun and clouds. 1 cm of snow. 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
