Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number of field observations

FRIDAY NIGHT: Scattered flurries with localized accumulations of 5 cm, strong southwest wind, alpine temperatures drop to -10 C.SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with isolated flurries, strong to extreme west wind, freezing level climbing to 1500 m, alpine high temperatures around -3 C.SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy with flurries possible later in the day, strong west wind, freezing level climbing to 1200 m, alpine high temperatures around -6 C.MONDAY: Skies clearing throughout the day, moderate north wind, alpine high temperatures around -6 C.

Skier traffic produced a few small (size 1) avalanches in the new snow on Thursday.The most recent reports of larger avalanches are from last weekend, when warm temperatures stressed the deeper layers in the snowpack and produced a few size 2 avalanches.

5-15 cm of new snow is burying large surface hoar crystals and/or sun crusts, which could eventually develop into a touchy problem as snow accumulates. The most suspect terrain features will be steep slopes and rolls below 2000 m (where the largest surface hoar exists) and steep south-facing slopes in the alpine (where sun crusts exist).Large variability in snow depths still exists in the region, ranging from almost no snow to nearly 200 cm in some areas. For average snowpack areas, expect to find weak and sugary faceted snow around 50 to 100 cm deep, which extend to the ground. This weak bottom half of the snowpack has been the culprit for large avalanches in the region over the past few weeks.