Given the short daylight hours at this time of year, start your trip early and plan to be back at the trailhead before sunset.
Weather Forecast
Light flurries accompanied by light winds will be the weather today. Freezing levels may rise as high as 1200m, but then lower to valley bottom for Wednesday morning. Generally cloudy for the next few days afterwards, without any significant snow, sun, or wind input to talk about.
Snowpack Summary
The overnight dusting we received covered up the variable snow surfaces from the holidays. There was widespread surface hoar from 1700m to ridgetop, thin variable slab in wind-exposed alpine areas, and thin sun crusts on steep solar aspects. Lower elevation and wind-protected areas have 10-15cm of low density faceted snow on a well settled base.
Avalanche Summary
Several loose size 1 to 2 avalanches were observed east of Rogers Pass in the highway corridor, all off of Mt Tupper and Mt Macdonald. Start zones were steep, rocky, unskiable terrain and the debris stopped high on the fans, so they were not travelling too far.
Problems
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.