Avalanche Forecast

Tuesday is expected to be a mix of sun and cloud with temperatures between -15 and -6 in the Alpine. Winds will be light from the SW with no precipitation. Unfortunately there is little to no snow in the long term forecast.

A skier was buried up to his neck near Hero's Knob on Sunday. This is the second human triggered avalanche in that zone in as many days. Sunday's slab avalanche was a size 2.0 approximately 70cm deep and 350m long and occurred on a steep north aspect (more details on the MIN). Thankfully there were no injuries. In addition, a couple of smaller wind slab avalanches occurred in the past 24 hours at 2300m in steep gully features on the east aspect of Little Tent Ridge.

Cold temperatures this morning were promoting surface faceting. At lower elevations the snowpack remains shallow and weak with ski penetration to ground in most areas unless you are on an previously skied path. Early season hazards are everywhere!! At treeline and above the wind effect starts. wind slab distribution is quite variable, but typical problem areas such as lee and cross-loaded terrain will have wind slabs. Recent natural and human-triggered avalanches indicate that these wind slabs are worth paying attention too. The two main failure planes of concern are the November crust and the October crust/facet combo buried approximately 50 to 70cm respectively at treeline.