Avalanche Forecast

Moderate -

Sunday will see the warm front with the associated precipitation begin to move into the region. There will only be minor accumulation on Sunday before the main mass of the storm arrives on Monday with 15-20cm of snow. Winds are still going to be strong out of the SW so as the storm begins to arrive we can expect avalanche danger to increase. 

No new natural avalanche activity was observed on Saturday but conditions felt primed for human triggered avalanches due to the presence of these new windslabs. 

The effects of the recent winds are noticeable with windslabs in open terrain at treeline and above. These windslabs are 10-20cm thick in areas travelled on Saturday but we can expect them to increase in depth and reactivity as winds continue overnight. Any windslab that starts in the upper snowpack will likely step down to the Jan 29th persistent interface down 40-60cm. Watch for these problems along ridgelines, and in lee terrain mainly on N and E aspects. 

• Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
• Pay attention to isolated alpine features as well as cross-loaded features at treeline.
• Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
• Watch for areas of hard wind slab on alpine features.