Avalanche Forecast

Good - -1

Light snowfall (around 5 cm) is expected on Thursday with the passage of a cold front across the region. Things should dry up by midday and especially eastern areas will see clearing skies. Freezing levels will be at valley bottom and winds will be gusty from the northwest. On Friday ridging continues, keeping temperatures cool, giving some bright spells and maintaining moderate northwesterly winds. Dry conditions should persist into Saturday, although there is a possibility of some precipitation (maybe even freezing rain) in this area.

A size 2 cornice release was reported from just south of this region on a north aspect around 2000m from Wednesday.

Total snowpack depths are approximately 250 cm at treeline. Moderate amounts of new snow fell overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Strong winds have redistributed some of this snow into the classic lee areas in exposed terrain-behind ridgelines, summits and exposed rolls and features at alpine elevations. Below around 1700m there is likely now a rain crust. A surface hoar/facet/crust interface from mid-December is well preserved and acting as a persistent weak layer. This is buried 100 to 150 cm deep and has been reactive to natural and human triggers. The increased depth is beginning to make triggering more difficult but bear in mind it also increases the size of anything that does go on this layer, which in turn increases the consequences.