Avalanche Forecast

High -

Mainly cloudy with isolated flurries tomorrow. Alpine low of -18. Winds will be westerly and up to 20km/hr.

We saw three avalanches today. All in the alpine on east aspects and up to sz 2.5. Interestingly, they were all mid slope and in skiable terrain.

A visit to some of our more remote weather plots today helped to give a more regional perspective on the snowpack. Below treeline is still the same as its been for the last while. Weak snow makes for difficult travel and poor coverage in terms of depth. On the up side, there are very few avalanche concerns! Depths range from 50cm-95cm.Treeline is variable these days for coverage and avalanche problems. Lower treeline suffers from the same weak snow/poor coverage issue. At the upper end of treeline the 10-30cm thick surface windslabs are present in open areas and vary in density. Hardslabs are common in windy areas and don't inspire confidence for ski quality or avalanches. The Dec 18th facet layer is prominent in all areas. It is down 30-50cm with a distinct density change. Lower down, the Nov crust layer is intact and still quite solid as a layer, but we are seeing depth hoar on top of it in most areas now. The alpine is essentially the same as treeline, but more variable. Wind exposure is the thing to keep in mind when predicting the hardslab locations. One common theme was the rapid change from feature to feature. In a few steps, the snowpack character changes considerably.