Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - The weather pattern is stable

SATURDAY NIGHT: Isolated flurries with trace amounts in northern and eastern parts of the region and up to 6 cm in southwestern parts of the region, moderate wind from the southwest, alpine temperatures drop to -12 C.SUNDAY: Isolated flurries with localized accumulations of 2-4 cm, light wind with moderate gusts from the southwest, alpine high temperatures around -8 C.MONDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light wind from the west, alpine high temperatures around -8 C.TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light wind from the west, alpine high temperatures around -10 C.

Large persistent slab avalanches continue to be reported on a regular basis. Natural activity quieted down on Saturday, but large persistent slabs were still reactive to explosive triggering.A widespread natural cycle occurred on Thursday and Friday with large (size 2-3) persistent slab and storm slab avalanches on all aspects. Some of these avalanches involved the full depth of the snowpack with up to 200 cm thick crowns.Over the past week there have been several notable large persistent slab avalanche that have been remotely triggered from skiers on adjacent slopes, particularly in the Golden area. Given this weak snowpack structure, human triggering will likely continue to be a concern on slopes with thin or variable snow depth and on slopes that did not previously avalanche.

Strong wind from the southwest and northwest has formed wind slabs in the alpine and around treeline. Approximately 50-100 cm of recent snow sits on a weak layer of facets (sugary snow), surface hoar (feathery crystals), and a sun crust (on south facing slopes) that formed during the dry spell in early December. Another similar weak layer is buried 80-150 cm. Finally, the base of the snowpack has weak facets layers at alpine and treeline elevations. All of these weak layers have been producing large avalanches over the past week. Human triggering any of these layer is most likely on slopes that didn't previously avalanche and on slopes that have variable snowpack depth (such as rocky alpine features).