Avalanche Forecast

On Thursday several small (size 1-1.5) persistent slab avalanches were triggered by riders failing on the crust layer from early February. This layer is now reaching a critical burial depth where it is both triggerable and deep enough to be dangerous.

Also, a few small and one large (size 2) storm slab avalanches were natural and accidentally triggered. All aspects and elevations.

Numerous storm and wind slab avalanches up to size 2 were reported on Wednesday.

10 to 20 cm of recent snow with a lot more on the way has buried a variety of surfaces including surface hoar in sheltered terrain and old wind slab on exposed slopes. Several crusts exist on sun exposed slopes and below treeline.

Another layer of surface hoar is down around 20 to 50 cm in sheltered areas.

The widespread crust buried in early February is down 40 to 65 cm and has sugary facets on top. In most places, this crust is widespread up to 2400 m.

The base of the snowpack is still loose and faceted in shallow rocky alpine areas.

Friday Night

Cloudy with 15 to 30 cm of snow. 35 to 50 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.

Saturday

Cloudy with 10 to 15 cm of snow. 25 to 45 km/h west alpine wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Sunday

Cloudy with 20 to 40 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.

Monday

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow. 15 km/h west alpine wind. Treeline temperature -13 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Fresh snow rests on a problematic persistent slab, don't let good riding lure you into complacency.
• Storm slab size and sensitivity to triggering will likely increase through the day.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
• Seek out sheltered terrain where new snow hasn't been wind-affected.