Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Freezing levels are uncertain on Wednesday

MONDAY:  Mix of sun and cloud / Light to moderate northwest wind / Alpine temperature -12TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud / Light to moderate west wind / Alpine temperature -5, possible temperature inversion WEDNESDAY: Cloudy with sunny breaks / Light southwest wind / Alpine temperature -1, temperature inversion

Recent reports are of a few wind slab avalanche to size 1.5 and loose dry avalanches running in steep terrain. Some cracking and whumpfing has been reported in terrain 1500m and below over the past few days. Please submit your observations to the Mountain Information Network (MIN).

15-30cm of low density new snow has buried a recently formed layer of weak feathery surface hoar and/or sugary facets. A layer buried mid-December that consists of surface hoar, sun crust and/or sugary facets is now down approximately 30-50cm. The bond at this old snow interface is of critical importance in areas where the overlying snow has consolidated into a slab. The most concerning areas are those that saw pronounced surface hoar development before the storm, such as sheltered areas at and below treeline, sheltered northerly aspects in the alpine, or anywhere the surface hoar formed on top of a sun crust. Recent snowpack tests show wide ranging reactivity on this weak layer. A crust which was formed by rain in late November is another major feature in the snowpack and is down approximately 70-100cm at tree line elevations. This interface has shown some signs of reactivity in the adjacent North Columbia region limited to steep, variably loaded alpine features.