Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Human-triggered avalanches are very likely as new snow continues to add stress to buried persistent weak layers.
Please read the Mountain Conditions Report for a detailed avalanche summary.
Two persistent weak layers are buried down ~100 and ~130 cm. New snow combined with extreme winds could overload these weak layers triggering large, destructive avalanches. These weak layers are also still reactive to human triggering.
40-80 cm of storm snow has been redistributed by extreme Westerly winds. Touchy storm slabs have formed in all exposed terrain. Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
A Natural cycle happened Friday. Numerous avalanches as big as size 4 running into valley bottom and covering the skin track. See the following link to an Mountain Conditions Report. Also, look at this MIN.
Natural avalanche activity up to size 3 on Thursday with explosives producing results up to size 3.5 in the highway corridor. Many of these avalanches stepped down to the persisant slab.
Storm slabs continues to build with forecasted winds and snowfall.
The Feb 9 surface hoar (SH) is down 90-120 cm and remains reactive in snowpack testing. The Feb 9 SH sits over a crust on solar aspects.
The Jan 26th layer, composed of surface hoar/facets/crust, is buried down 130-150 cm. The largest surface hoar is preserved in sheltered areas below treeline.
An intense storm tapers off Saturday.
Tonight 5cm. Low -14°C. West Wind 25-70 km/h. Freezing level (FZL) 1300m.
Sat - Mix of Sun/Cloud. High -10°C. Winds W 15-30 km/h. FZL 700m.
Sun - Sunny w/ cloudy periods. High -4°C. SW wind 15-40km/hr. FZL 1600m.
Mon - Cloudy w/ sunny periods. High -4°C. Winds West 25-70km/hr. FZL 1300m.
