Avalanche Forecast

Friday: Size 1 and 2 loose wet, and wet slab avalanches were observed in the alpine out of lee features.

Several small (size 1) loose wet avalanches were also observed in the Shames Mountain backcountry.

Thursday: Two small (size 1) natural and rider triggered wet slabs were observed.

10-20 cm of snow has fallen in region over the last week. This snow is likely very dense, settling rapidly, and moist or wet at treeline elevations and below, where some of this snow fell as rain.

A layer of surface hoar and facets has been found around 30-50 cm deep in some parts of the region. Below this sits a 15 cm thick hard crust. There is potential for the accumulated storm snow / rain and warm temperatures to overload these layers triggering large avalanches.

Saturday Night

Cloudy with 2-9 cm of new snow / light to moderate rain, southwest alpine wind 60 km/h, treeline temperature 1°C, freezing level 1600 m

Sunday

Cloudy with 1-6 cm snow / light rain, southerly alpine wind 80 km/h, treeline high of 4 °C, freezing level 1700 m.

Monday

Cloudy with 10-30 cm of new snow / moderate to heavy rain, southerly alpine wind 70 km/h, treeline temperature 5 °C, freezing level between 1700 m.

Tuesday

Cloudy with 5-10 cm snow / light to moderate rain, southwesterly alpine wind 40-50 km/h, treeline temperature 2 °C, freezing level 1500m m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
• As surface loses cohesion due to melting, loose wet avalanches become common in steeper terrain.