Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain on Saturday

A westerly flow dominates the next few days. A number of weather systems are lined up to bring varying amounts of precipitation and wind to the interior regions.Friday: Light to locally moderate snowfall, alpine temperatures -7, winds moderate west and southwestSaturday: Moderate to locally heavy snowfall, alpine temperatures -8, winds strong to extreme  west and southwest. Freezing level rising to 1200m for a short period in the morning. Sunday Light snowfall, Alpine temperatures -7, moderate west winds.

There are no new reports of avalanche activity in the past 2 days. However I would expect to see an increase in natural and rider/skier triggered avalanches as new snow amounts continue to accumulate and the wind speeds pick up over the next 2-3 days.

Up to 30 cm of new snow sits on a variety of snow surfaces ranging from older stiff wind slab, a soft layer of facetted snow and/or surface hoar. 70-90cm below the surface from you may find at various depths a thin melt freeze crust below 2100m and a couple of buried weak layers (surface hoar, facetted snow, and/or a crust) that are variably reactive in snowpack tests.There are two deeper layers of note. The late-November persistent weak layer consists of a sun crust on steep south facing slopes and surface hoar in sheltered areas and is now buried 90-160cm below the surface. The October deep persistent weak layer consists of a layer of facets sitting on a crust at the base of the snowpack. This layer is predominantly found on northerly aspects at treeline and in the alpine. The depth of both these layers makes directly triggering an avalanche on them unlikely (maybe a heavy load on a thin spot in steep terrain). Their presence could, however, increase the size of a potential avalanche through step-down.