Good skiing can still be found in sheltered areas on low angled terrain. The snowpack has several weak layers which can produce large avalanches.
Recent variable strong winds have created and added to previous wind slabs that formed in Alpine and Treeline areas. In addition, there are several iterations of buried wind slabs formed in previous wind events down 30 to 50cm in the snowpack.
The alpine is still variable in total amounts of snow but the basal layers haven't changed. The entire lower half is either facets, or depth hoar. Thin weak areas should be treated as suspect and avoided.
Several natural avalanches that were 36-48 hours old were observed. This cycle of natural avalanches has been the theme this winter.
Sheltered areas are still providing good skiing. The forecasting crew were out just East of Tent Ridge and found that the snowpack still has a lot going on. At tree line, the surface wind slab produced easy compression tests 25cm down. Then we got a moderate compression test at the top of the facet layer which was 100cm from the ground. The November surface hoar/facet layer was still producing moderate to hard compression tests which was 45cm off the ground. Not a very inspiring or confidence building snowpack. Be cautious approaching larger slopes. Solar radiation, and daytime heating can have a significant effect in March. One should be aware of exposure to slopes above while travelling below tree line.
A pretty nice day is forecast for Tuesday with a mix of sun and cloud. The morning will start off cold at around -20c and then warm up to -8c. Winds are forecast to be Light from the West.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
