Avalanche Forecast

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

A westerly flow dominates the next few days. A number of weather systems are lined up to bring varying amounts of precipitation and wind to the interior regions.Friday: Light snowfall, alpine temperatures -10, winds moderate to strong west and southwestSaturday: Moderate snowfall, alpine temperatures -8, winds strong to extreme west and southwest. Freezing levels possibly rising to 1200m in the morning.Sunday: Moderate snowfall, Alpine temperatures -8, moderate west winds. 

There have been a few different close calls with large avalanches in the north of this region in the last three weeks. Check out the incident database for more details. There have been no recent reports of avalanche activity. However I would expect to see an increase in natural and rider/skier triggered avalanches as new snow amounts continue to accumulate and the wind speeds pick up over the next 2-3 days.

Up to 10 cm of new snow sits on a variety of snow surfaces ranging from stiff wind slab, a soft layer of facetted snow and/or surface hoar. These sit on top of old wind slabs and a couple of persistent weak layers that exist in the upper meter of the relatively thin snowpack. The mid December surface hoar is buried around 30-90 cm. The early December facet/crust combo is buried down 50-150 cm. Both interfaces give variable results with snowpack tests, but professional operators are treating them with caution.A bigger concern, especially in the Northern part of the region is a layer of weak sugary depth hoar crystals at the base of the snowpack that lie above a crust from early October. Several large avalanches in the last two weeks have been attributed to failures at this layer. Wide propagations on relatively gentle terrain have been noted, as well as a tendency for seemingly disconnected slopes to become connected by one large avalanche.