Avalanche Forecast

Poor - Due to the number of field observations

Tonight and Sunday: Periods of snow around 5-10 cm. The freezing level is near valley bottom and winds are moderate gusting strong from the W-NW. Monday: Flurries or periods of snow 5-10 cm. The freezing level is around 1000-1200 m and winds are light to moderate from the west. Tuesday: Cloudy with a chance of flurries. The freezing level is near valley bottom.

Reports from the past couple days are very limited; however, it's likely that the combination of new snow, wind, and mild temperatures kicked off a natural avalanche cycle in some areas. The additional load may have also been enough to trigger deep persistent weaknesses in isolated areas.

Storm snow totals vary across the region but are generally between 30 and 40 cm. Freezing levels peaked near 1600 m on Friday and have since dropped significantly. A new surface crust is possible at lower elevations. Expect to find touchy wind slabs in exposed lee terrain at and above treeline. A couple buried weak layers (surface hoar or facets) are now down 80-100 cm deep. Recent snowpack test results on these layers vary, but some are showing this layer "pop" with easy to medium loads, indicating a potential for human triggering.Snowpack depths vary, but in general up to 150 cm of snow can be found at treeline, with 100-200 cm in the alpine. In many places we're still dealing with a relatively thin snowpack (thanks to a windy early season) so there's not a whole lot of snow between riders and the sugary snow (facets) near the ground. The basal facet/crust combo has been recently active in parts of the region and continues to give easy to moderate results in snowpack tests.