Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

A few natural wind or storm slab avalanches have been reported on Friday morning in the Pine Pass area with the arrival of new snow and strong winds.

As new snow starts to accumulate and the load slowly starts to increase above buried weak layers, we expect persistent slabs to become more reactive.

New snow is being redistributed by strong southwest winds, leaving widespread wind-affected surfaces in exposed terrain. The snow surface will likely become moist at low elevations.

30 to 60 cm below the surface a variety of potential weak layers may exist, including surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain, weak facets, or a hard melt-freeze crust on south and west-facing slopes.

A thick and hard widespread crust that formed in early February is buried about 60 to 90 cm deep. This crust may have a layer of facets above it.

Saturday Night

Mostly cloudy with up to 10 cm of new snow. 25 to 45 km/h southwest alpine wind.  Treeline temperature -4°C.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of new snow. 25 to 45 km/h southwest alpine wind. Freezing level rising to 1300 m.

Monday

A mix of sun and cloud with up to 5 cm of new snow. 15 to 35 km/h southwest alpine wind. Treeline temperature -1°C.

Tuesday

Mostly cloudy with around 5 cm of  new snow. 20 to 40 km/h south alpine wind. Treeline temperature -1°C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Minimize exposure during periods of heavy loading from new snow and wind.
• Conservative terrain selection is critical, choose only well supported, low consequence lines.
• Remote triggering is a concern, watch out for adjacent and overhead slopes.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.