Avalanche Forecast

Poor - Due to limited field observations for the entire period

The deep low pressure system off the Gulf of Alaska continues to spin a moist, warm southwesterly flow over the South Coast mountains. The weather pattern will remain continuous and active through Saturday. On Sunday afternoon sunny periods may exist. Saturday: FLVL’s 1300 m, snow amounts 5-10 cm, ridgetop winds SE 40-50 km/hr, alpine temps near -5.Sunday: FLVL’s 1300m, trace of new snow, ridgetop winds S 20 km/hr, and alpine temps -4.Monday: FLVL’s 1100 – 1200m, ridgetop winds S 30 km/hr, alpine temps -6.

No new avalanche observations have been reported.

The region will continue to see pulses of light-moderate snow accumulations, and strong ridgetop winds. Storm slabs and new wind slabs will load a variety of weak surfaces. These surfaces consist of large surface hoar, a thin sun crust, surface facets. The new snow may have a poor bond to these underlying weaknesses. Below the surface, the mid-pack seems to be settled and bridging over the early Nov facet/crust. However, near the bottom of the snowpack under the crust exists large, low density facetted crystals.Snowpack tests from earlier this week showed sudden collapse ("drops") results on the early November facet/crust deep persistent weakness. Because this weakness is so close to the ground in most areas, associated avalanche activity will likely be limited to slopes with smooth ground cover (e.g. scree slopes, rock slabs, summer firn, glaciers, etc.). Be aware of triggering this layer from thin, rocky areas, this persistent weakness my be a low probability/ high consequence scenario. Below treeline the snowpack generally sits below threshold.