Avalanche Forecast

Wednesday it looking to be a mix of sun and cloud with cold temps in the morning near -20C then improving to -10C by mid day. Winds will being to increase throughout the day into the moderate to strong range out of the west. Light snowfall is forecast over the next few days but accumulations are not expected to be significant on wednesday. 

Evidence of avalanches up to sz 2 were noted but fracture lines were quickly being blown in making estimations about the depth of many of these avalanches challenging. It appeared most slides were around 40cm deep and at most 60m wide. 

The recent snow has been affected by the strong winds on friday forming windslabs in open alpine terrain and isolated areas at treeline. These slabs are 10-20cm thick where observed today but forecasters were being conservative in treeline features. Moderate sheers were noted within the upper storm snow and no reactivity was observed on the Jan 29th interface down 70cm. The big concern now is windslabs in the alpine in open areas. If you feel drummy or hollow snow start seeking conservative terrain or supported low angles slopes.   

• Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
• Watch for areas of hard wind slab on alpine features.
• Avoid lee and cross-loaded terrain.