Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Due to the number and quality of field observations

Fairly benign weather pattern for the forecast period.Tuesday: Mostly cloudy. Alpine temperatures near -4 and freezing levels at valley bottom. Ridgetop winds light from the west. Wednesday: Cloudy with possible sunny breaks. Alpine temperatures near -5 with light west winds. Thursday: Mainly cloudy. Alpine temperatures near -7 with ridgetop winds light west.

On Sunday, avalanche control using explosives produced avalanches up to size 1. On Monday, loose wet avalanche activity was observed from steep S-SW slopes up to size 1.Please submit your observations to the Mountain Information Network.

A variety of snow surfaces exist throughout the region. Stiff wind slabs sit on a wide range of aspects on alpine and exposed treeline slopes. In sheltered treeline and below treeline terrain, I suspect light amounts of low-density snow intermingle with surface hoar and surface facets.Roughly 30-60 cm below the surface you'll likely find a hard crust that was buried near the end of November. This crust is approximately 30 cm thick and extends from 1600 m to mountain top on all aspects. Below this crust, the snowpack is moist to ground. Average snowpack depths at treeline elevations in the region range from 80-120 cm.