Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Wednesday: A Pacific frontal system starts to affect the interior regions. Cloudy with light to locally moderate snowfall, moderate to strong west winds. Freezing level in the valley bottom.Thursday: Moderate snowfall in the western portions of the region, light snowfall in the eastern portions, alpine temperatures -7, moderate west winds.Friday: Light snowfall, alpine temperatures -5, freezing level 1200m, winds moderate west and southwest

Recent reports from the last 3 days indicate that the natural avalanche activity seems to be isolated to a windslab and cornice releases up to size 2.5. These are running within the storm snow in the alpine and at treeline elevations. There was also a report of a glide crack release running naturally to size 3.

Up to 50cm of recent new snow lies on top of old wind slabs, a thin melt freeze crust below 2100m and numerous weak layers. Down 40 -100cm is the mid December layer comprised of surface hoar, stellars and/or a crust. Around 70 -140cm down is the early December surface hoar, faceted snow and/or crust.There are two deeper layers of note. The late-November persistent weak layer consists of a sun crust on steep south facing slopes and surface hoar in sheltered areas and is now buried 90-160cm below the surface. The October deep persistent weak layer consists of a layer of facets sitting on a crust at the base of the snowpack. This layer is predominantly found on northerly aspects at treeline and in the alpine. The depth of both these layers makes directly triggering an avalanche on them unlikely (maybe a heavy load on a thin spot in steep terrain). Their presence could, however, increase the size of a potential avalanche through step-down.