Avalanche Forecast

Thursday night: Cloudy with continuing scattered flurries bringing 5-10 cm of new snow. Moderate southwest winds.

Friday: Cloudy with continuing scattered flurries bringing another 5-10 cm of new snow. Light to moderate southwest winds. Alpine high temperatures around -2 with freezing levels remaining near 1500 metres.

Saturday: Cloudy with a chance of isolated flurries. Light to moderate south winds. Alpine high temperatures around -4 with freezing levels to 1300 metres.

Sunday: Broken skies, becoming cloudy with isolated flurries and a trace of new snow. Moderate southeast winds. Alpine high temperatures around -5.

There have been no new avalanches reported for several days. 

On Thursday, up to 15 cm of new snow, paired with warm temperatures and strong southerly winds, likely led to touchy storm slabs forming in many areas. Similar conditions are expected for Friday.

Regular snowfall over the past week brought 20-40 cm of snow to the region. Elevated winds and warm temperatures on Thursday mean that touchy new storm slabs were likely forming at higher elevations while melting of surface snow occurred below about 1600 metres. A similar picture is expected for Friday.

There is a layer of surface hoar buried 60 to 120 cm deep. This layer exists primarily at treeline and below. It appears to be gaining strength, though test results indicate that there is still the potential to trigger it in isolated areas. Check out this MIN report from a few days ago outlining some recent test results on this layer.

• Storm slab size and sensitivity to triggering will likely increase through the day.
• Avoid freshly wind loaded terrain features.