Avalanche Forecast

Good

The unsettled weather pattern has taken a turn. A weak high pressure system builds in the wake of another approaching Pacific Frontal system and the region is expected to see light amounts of new snow starting midday on Christmas. Happy Holidays!Christmas Day: Snow amounts near 5 cm accompanied by moderate Southerly ridgetop winds. Alpine temperatures near -10, with freezing levels near 600 m in the afternoon.Wednesday: Snow amounts 5-10 cm with ridgetop winds moderate from the SW. Alpine temperatures near -9, and freezing levels near 800 m.Thursday: Scattered cloud and mainly dry. Ridgetop winds light from the West. Alpine temperatures light from the West and freezing levels at valley bottom.

Overnight Saturday natural avalanches occurred during the storm on SE-S aspects up to size 1.5, and mainly from steep, rocky terrain. Explosive avalanche control done on Sunday revealed numerous slab avalanches up to size 2.0 on SE-S aspects. Loose snow avalanches up to size 1.0, and one slab avalanche size 1.5 were easily skier triggered from NW aspects. The previous storm snow is likely touchy to rider triggers, it make take a couple days before it settles out.

Around 110 cm new snow has fallen over the past week. The recent storm snow seems to be settling with moderate to hard resistant shears in the top meter of the snowpack.  In areas of wind effect, expect the storm slab to be stiffer, easy to trigger and more reactive. In sheltered places the slab is still relatively unconsolidated and soft and may not propagate far. In some areas through the region, people continue to monitor the late November buried surface hoar found down around 130 cm. Test results are in the hard to very hard range with sudden results. This layer may be difficult to trigger, but you can expect a consequential avalanche to occur if this layer fails. Deeper in the snowpack sits a well settled mid-pack.