Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

A remotely (from a distance) triggered size 2 persistent slab avalanche was reported on a north aspect at 1350 m on Tuesday. The fracture line was 50 cm deep and ran on a surface hoar layer 50 cm deep.

Additionally there were numerous naturally triggered size 2 persistent slab avalanches running on north aspects suspected to have run on surface hoar buried in early December.

15-30 cm of new snow may accumulate Wednesday night through Thursday.

A buried layer of weak, feathery surface hoar crystals buried mid-December can be found down 35 to 60 cm from the surface. An additional layer of buried surface hoar may exist deeper in the snowpack, roughly 70 to 100 cm below the surface.

The remaining mid and lower snowpack contains several crusts from early in the season that are generally well-bonded to the surrounding snowpack.

Snow depth decreases significantly at lower elevations.

Wednesday Night

Cloudy with snow 5-10 cm, ridgetop wind southwest 30 to 50 km/h, treeline temperature -3 °C, freezing level 900 m.

Thursday

Cloudy with 10-20 cm of snow, ridgetop wind southwest 30-60 km/h, treeline temperature -2 °C. freezing level 1100 m.

Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow, ridgetop wind south 40-80 km/h, treeline temperature -2 °C, Freezing level 700 m.

Cloudy with 1-3 cm of snow, ridgetop wind south 20-30 km/h, treeline temperature -4 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Storm slab size and sensitivity to triggering will likely increase through the day.
• Minimize exposure during periods of heavy loading from new snow and wind.
• Approach steep open slopes at and below treeline cautiously, buried surface hoar may exist.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.