Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain. Uncertainty is due to the fact that persistent slabs are particularly difficult to forecast.

Monday night: Partly cloudy with isolated flurries with trace accumulations, light west winds, alpine temperature -12 C.

Tuesday: Cloudy, 5-15 cm of snow, moderate south winds, alpine high temperature -8 C.

Wednesday: Cloudy, 10-20 cm overnight and throughout the day, moderate west winds, alpine high temperature -9 C.

Thursday: Mix of sun and cloud, isolated flurries with trace accumulations, light southwest winds, alpine high temperature -11 C. 

There have been many reports of small to large (size 1.5-2.5) avalanches from both natural and human triggers on a variety of aspects and elevations. Most of these avalanches released on a surface hoar layer formed in late December. A few avalanches have been remote-triggered, like this one observed Wednesday. 

Be sure to check out this MIN, this MIN, and this MIN for helpful illustrations of slopes that are likely to harbor this problem. A sincere thanks to the community for submitting these reports!

Recent snowfall has been redistributed by wind in exposed areas, loading lee features with stiffer, more reactive slabs.

Over the past week, a total of 70-100 cm of snow has accumulated burying a weak layer of feathery surface hoar and a hard melt-freeze crust on sun-exposed aspects. This layer formed in late December and continues to produce large avalanches across aspects and elevations. Snowpack tests have also confirmed this weak layer's propagation potential (check out this MIN from Saturday).

• Avoid freshly wind loaded features, especially near ridge crests, roll-overs and in steep terrain.
• Choose simple, low-angle, well supported terrain without convexities.
• Be aware of the potential for large avalanches due to the presence of buried weak layers.