Avalanche Forecast

Fair

Friday: Cloudy with sunny breaks. The freezing level is between 2500-3000 m. Ridge winds are light to moderate from the west. Saturday: Cloudy with possible light snow. The freezing level lowers to around 1800-2000 m. Winds are generally light from the W-NW. Sunday: Cloudy with light snow and occasional sunny breaks. The freezing level is around 1400-1500 m.

Only one size 1 skier controlled avalanche on a steep convex roll was reported on Wednesday. Reports from Tuesday include evidence of old natural slab avalanches up to Size 2.5. Heavy triggers such as explosives and snowcats were able to trigger 20-90 cm deep storm slabs up to Size 2, but no new naturals were observed and ski-cutting was ineffective.

The rain line during recent heavy precipitation generally hovered around 1700m, although there were periods where rain fell into the alpine. Above that elevation, heavy accumulations of moist, dense snow have been pushed by strong southwest winds into cornices and deeper deposits on the lee side of ridgecrests and terrain breaks. Recent storm snow is poorly bonded to a hard crust, which may have overlying surface hoar, that was buried late January. The mid-December crust/facet/surface hoar weakness may be persisting in the mid to lower snowpack at higher elevations.