Avalanche Forecast

Low - Due to the number of field observations

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with isolated flurries, trace accumulation. Light northwest wind. Alpine low of -12C.THURSDAY: Mix of sun and cloud. Light northwest wind. Alpine high of -11C.FRIDAY: Mix of sun and cloud. Light increasing to moderate west wind. Alpine high of -10C.SATURDAY: Cloudy with sunny periods and scattered flurries, accumulating up to 5 cm. Moderate west wind. Freezing level rising to 1200 m.

On Sunday, explosives and skier traffic triggered wind slab avalanches to size 2. On Saturday, explosives triggered avalanches on the persistent weak layer to size 2.5. One natural size 2 avalanche that was triggered by a cornice was reported in the region on Friday.Information in this region is limited. Post your observations to the Mountain Information Network here.

Strong to extreme winds have redistributed new snow in the alpine and treeline, stripping areas exposed to the wind and creating hard wind slabs in wind-loaded terrain. In total, 60-90 cm of recent snow has formed a slab that sits on a persistent weak layer of facets (sugary snow) that formed during the dry weather in early December. Though avalanche activity on this layer has slowed down in recent days, it may still be easy for humans to trigger avalanches on this layer in certain terrain features. Steep features where the underlying ground cover is smooth, places where the snowpack depths are variable, and large convex features are some of the more likely places to trigger this layer.The lower snowpack has a weak structure composed primarily of facets. It is likely that an avalanche triggered on the persistent slab would step down to the lower facets, resulting in a full depth avalanche.