Avalanche Forecast

Small to large human-triggered avalanches are becoming less common, but continue to be reported throughout the region.

Many of these avalanches have been remotely triggered. This MIN post gives a great description of the type of avalanche activity we have seen over the last week.

Expect this type of avalanche activity to remain possible.

Southerly winds will form wind slab in exposed terrain. A new sun crust and surface layer is down up to 15 cm. The snow surface will likely become moist at lower elevations.

40 to 80 cm overlies a layer of surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain, and weak facets, or a hard melt-freeze crust on south and west-facing slopes.

A thick and hard widespread crust that formed in early February is buried about 60 to 120 cm deep. This crust may have a layer of facets above it.

The snowpack below this crust is generally not concerning except in shallow alpine terrain.

Saturday Night

Mostly cloudy with up to 5 cm of new snow. 40 to 70 km/h south alpine wind.  Treeline temperature -7°C.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy with around 5 cm of new snow. 35 to 55 km/h south alpine wind. Treeline temperature -3°C.

Monday

Mostly cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of new snow. 15 to 35 km/h south alpine wind. Treeline temperature -6°C.

Tuesday

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of  new snow. 15 to 30 km/h south alpine wind. Treeline temperature -2°C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Conservative terrain selection is critical, choose only well supported, low consequence lines.
• Remote triggering is a concern, watch out for adjacent and overhead slopes.
• Be aware of the potential for surprisingly large avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.