Avalanche Forecast

Fair

The ridge of high pressure persists for the forecast period. Cold and dry conditions continue.Friday/Saturday: Clear and sunny, treeline temperatures around -15 with colder temperatures in the valleys, mountain-top winds light-moderate variableSunday: Clear in the morning with increasing cloud cover through the day, treeline temperatures around -15 and the inversion should begin to break down, mountain-top winds moderate SW

On Wednesday, a skier triggered size 1.5 wind slab avalanche was reported in the north of the region.  This occurred on a convex roll feature on a NE aspect at 1800m elevation.

Snow surface and upper snowpack conditions are quite variable but the common theme is that most areas are hard with very little ski penetration.  The snow surface may consist of any of the following: (1) faceting snow (generally widespread due to current cold temperatures) (2) hard wind scoured and pitted surfaces at higher elevations (3) a thin wind crust or small isolated wind slabs on leeward or cross-loaded features(4) surface hoar in wind-sheltered areas (5) Thin melt-freeze crust(6) late-January crust down around 10cm is breaking down with facetingThe mid and lower snowpack are well settled and there are currently no layers of concern. However, in thinner snowpack areas, a weak basal layer of facets or depth hoar may still be a concern.