Still good skiing on sheltered northerly aspects. A sunny day on Tuesday will lead to natural avalanche activity on solar aspects. Start your trip early and plan to be back at the trailhead before the heat and solar radiation becomes intense.
Wind slab were observed on all aspects in the alpine. These may be more sensitive to triggering where the underlying crust is prominent.
Watch for sheltered northern areas where this layer may still exist.
With the sunny skies and intense solar radiation, loose wet avalanches are expected, especially in steep rocky terrain.
A rescue flight through the eastern part of the region Monday afternoon revealed very little avalanche activity. One fresh naturally triggered cornice failure occurred on a north aspect at around 2800m in the past 12-24hrs. This cornice failure then triggered a size 2 slab avalanche approximately 40cm deep.
New wind slabs were evident in the alpine on all aspects. While these slabs are not deep, they could be sensitive to triggering where the underlying surface is a smooth crust. Otherwise, expect a melt-freeze surface layer on all solar aspects as well as all aspects at lower elevations. Higher elevation northerly aspects still hold dry snow. Cornices are starting to sag in the mid-April heat, and some recent collapses have been observed.
Tuesday will be mainly sunny with alpine temps peaking near -4C and freezing levels near 2450m. winds will be moderate from the west with no precipitation. Wednesday will bring a cooling trend with light flurries.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
