Avalanche Forecast

Moderate -

MONDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with clear periods, light wind, alpine temperature drop to -12 C.TUESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light wind from the west, alpine high temperatures around -10 C.WEDNESDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light wind from the west, alpine high temperatures around -12 C.THURSDAY: Mix of sun and cloud, light wind from the northwest, alpine high temperatures around -12 C.

Natural avalanche activity has started to taper off, but large persistent slabs continue to be reactive to human and explosive triggers. On Sunday, a large (size 2.5) persistent slab avalanche was triggered by a snowmobiler in Singing Pass. The avalanche occurred on a wind loaded northwest-facing slope in the alpine. See details in the MIN report. Over the weekend explosive in produced numerous large persistent slab avalanches (size 2-4) in alpine terrain. The avalanches occurred on all aspects and failed on several different weak layers including the early December weak layer and weak facets at the bottom of the snowpack. Over the past two weeks, several large persistent slab avalanches were remotely triggered from skiers on adjacent slopes, particularly in the Golden area.

5-15 cm of low density snow sits above wind slabs in the alpine, and in some isolated areas above small surface hoar (feathery crystals).A weak layer that formed during the dry spell in early December is now 50-100 cm deep. The layer is composed of facets (sugary snow), surface hoar (feathery crystals), and a sun crust (on south aspects). 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).