Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Tuesday

A strong westerly flow is setting up for Tuesday with average seasonal temps. The big story is the wind. Winds are forecasted to be out of the W in excess of 100 km/h at ridgetop all day Tuesday. Precipitation will begin to fall Tuesday afternoon continuing into the night, there should be around 5 cm of new snow out of this pulse by Wednesday morning. A second system of lesser intensity moves through the area Wednesday/Thursday producing another 5 cm of snow. Thursday afternoon and Friday look to be generally dry.

Very little avalanche activity has been reported or observed recently.

Last week 40-60cm of snow formed soft slabs over a crust/facet/surface hoar combo which has settled remarkably quickly. Our field team was out over the weekend covering ground & they saw very little in the way of avalanche activity. Deeper in the snowpack, a surface hoar layer buried in early December remains a concern, as avalanches triggered on this layer would be destructive. There may have been releases on this layer post storm but at this time nothing has been reported. It should be noted that basal facets exist in many parts of the region too.Facets sandwiched between two firm layers in the top metre of the snowpack are being monitored in the south-east.