Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Uncertainties in both the snowpack structure and the weather forecast limit our confidence.

SATURDAY NIGHT - Snow, heavy at times 12-25 cm / southwest wind moderate, gusting to strong / alpine low temperature near -2 / freezing level 1200-1500 m

SUNDAY - Chance of flurries with sunny breaks / gusty southwest winds / alpine high temperature near 0 / freezing level 2000 m

MONDAY - Snow/Rain 10-20 cm / southwest wind, 30-40 km/h gusting to 85 km/h / alpine high temperature near 0 / freezing level up to 1700 m 

TUESDAY - Periods of of snow, possibly heavy at times / moderate east winds / freezing levels initially high, but dropping at tail end of storm

On Saturday explosives produced results up to size 2 on the early December crust. On Friday there were a few natural size 2 wind slab avalanches reported in the alpine.

Please consider sharing your observations on the Mountain Information Network. Thank you to those that have already submitted this winter!

Strong wind from the southwest and fresh snow has likely formed new reactive storm slabs. Depending on aspect and elevation 60-100 cm now sits on the early December crust. This crust may have persistent weak, and facetted crystals above and below it. 

Deeper in the snowpack are two hard melt-freeze crusts that formed in November that may have some weak crystals around them. There is uncertainty if and where in the region this may be a problem. Without any recent avalanche activity, it appears that this layer is dormant for the time being.

• Avoid all avalanche terrain during periods of heavy loading from new snow and wind.
• Don't let the desire for deep powder pull you into high consequence terrain.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.