Avalanche Forecast

Good

Synopsis: A ridge of high pressure should be the dominant feature over the next several days. The only exception is on Saturday when a weak disturbance moves through bringing more cloud and a chance of flurries. Temperatures should stay slightly below normal with daytime highs around -8 at treeline and winds generally light from the north. The sun should return on Sunday with temperatures starting to rise and the potential for an above freezing layer to form.

A widespread natural avalanche cycle was observed on Wednesday with numerous slab avalanches up to size 2 and a few larger events up to size 3. There were also several size 2 skier triggered avalanches, many occurring at below treeline elevations and releasing on the early January surface hoar layer.

Up to 60 cm of snow fell earlier this week. This new snow was generally upside down feeling and was affected by strong winds at higher elevations. The storm snow was initially bonding very poorly to the previous snow surface, which includes large surface hoar, facets, old hard wind slabs, or a sun crust. Snowpack tests on Wednesday continued to yield easy to moderate sudden planar, or "pops", results on this interface. No significant weaknesses have been reported recently below this in the mid snowpack layers. Near the base of the snowpack, a crust/facet layer exists, which is now unlikely to be triggered, except perhaps by heavy triggers in steep, shallow, rocky terrain where more facetting has taken place.