Northwest Coastal

Avalanche danger will rise as new snow accumulates. How quickly this happens depends on how much snow and wind we see.

Moderate - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

Monday: Increasing cloud with snow in the afternoon. The freezing level is around 600 m. Ridge winds are moderate to strong from the S-SW. Tuesday: Periods of snow – 15-30 cm from Monday evening through Tuesday. The freezing level is around 500-700 m. Winds are strong from the SW. Wednesday: Cloudy with periods of snow. The freezing level is near 500 m and winds are moderate from the W-SW.

Some loose snow sluffing has been observed in steep terrain, but no new slab avalanches have been reported since Wednesday last week.

The upper snowpack is very complex. The top 100 cm consists of at least 3 distinct buried surface hoar layers, weak faceted snow, and possibly thin sun crusts on some solar aspects. Recent winds have also wreaked havoc in wind exposed terrain producing hard or stiff slabs and fresh soft slabs in lee and cross-loaded terrain, and scouring windward slopes at ridgetops. We could see decent new loading from snow and wind this week. This could tip the scales and result in widespread avalanche activity if a slab forms. If we do see more than 20 cm in the next couple days I would tread lightly until we get a good feel for how the snowpack is reacting.