Avalanche Forecast

Moderate

Visibility was poor to see if any avalanches have happened. But given the winds and snow that has fallen so far, avalanches should be expected to run to valley bottom.

Lots of new snow and lots of wind is the recipe for fresh reactive slab avalanches. Expect to find 25-45cm of storm snow that has been greatly affected by strong westerly winds.

This storm snow has created fresh wind slabs up to 50cm thick, especially in lee features and cross loaded gullies. These reactive slabs overly a variety of surfaces of concern:

1. The most recent surface before the storm (February 24) which is a combination of crusts on solar aspects and faceted snow from the last 3 week drought. This is true at all elevations.

2. The buried rain crust which everyone is calling the February 2 crust that would be down about 50cm. This is also true at all elevations.

It is definitely a time to be conservative in terrain selection.

15cm of snow has fallen so far on Sunday in the alpine and another 15-20cm is forecast to fall by Monday morning. The winds will be strong out of the West during the snowfall and become light from the West by Monday morning. Temperature on Monday in the alpine is forecast to be a high of -13c. Expect flurries for the remainder of the week.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Shooting cracks, whumphs and recent avalanches are strong indicators of an unstable snowpack.
• Potential for wide propagation exists, fresh slabs may rest on surface hoar, facets and/or crust.
• Be carefull with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.