Northwest Inland

New snow will add load to buried weak layers, and those layers are most likely to be a problem where the surface snow is heavy or firm.

• Look for signs of instability: whumphing, hollow sounds, shooting cracks, and recent avalanches.

On Tuesday, our field team had concerning snowpack test results on the same surface hoar layer (buried in mid November) related to this Mountain Information Network report.

5 cm of new snow buried previously wind affected snow in the alpine and open areas at treeline.

In sheltered areas, expect to find soft snow.

A layer of weak, feathery (surface hoar) crystals is buried 20 to 30 cm and is most problematic where the surface snow is firm.

A crust formed in November and is buried at about 60 to 90 cm with small facets above it.

At treeline, the snow is about 100 cm deep, snowpack depth gradually thins as elevation decreases to 30 cm at valley bottom.

Friday Night
Cloudy. 2 to 4 cm of snow. 20 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C. Freezing level 700 m.

Saturday
Mostly cloudy. 2 to 6 cm of snow. 35 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1000 m.

Sunday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 10 cm of snow. 40 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 0 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.

Monday
Mostly cloudy. 5 to 15 cm. 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.