Avalanche Forecast

Two large natural avalanches were reported in the west of the region that occurred in a steep, shallow, rocky terrain features above 2000 m

Going forward these isolate terrain features: Thin, rocky areas where the melt-freeze crust is not found or less robust should be avoided.

New snow starting with flurries tonight and continuing through tomorrow will bury/further bury various surfaces. These surfaces consist of crusts on steep south-facing slopes, surface hoar that developed over the past few days, and in sheltered areas 30 to 40 cm of soft snow.

A hard melt-freeze crust can be found up to 2000 m. Where it is robust enough to do so, this crust will make deeper instabilities difficult to trigger.

Above 2000 m where the December 26 melt-freeze crust is thin or non-existent the two persistent weak layers may still be triggered in steep, shallow, rocky terrain features. The two layers of concern are:

• A surface hoar/crust layer buried in mid-December down 60 to 80 cm.

• A surface hoar/facet layer buried in mid-November down 80 to 150 cm deep.

Friday night

Cloudy with clear breaks, the chance of flurries possibility of freezing rain, 10 to 20 km/h southwest wind, treeline temperature around -5 °C.

Saturday

Cloudy, 5 to 10 cm new snow, to 20 to 40 km/h, treeline temperature -4 °C.

Cloudy, 5 to 10 cm of new snow, heaviest overnight, 20 to 40 km/h southwest winds, treeline temperatures -5 °C

Cloudy with possible sunny breaks, with flurries tapering through the morning. 20 to 30 km/h southerly winds, treeline temperatures -6 °C

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Pay attention to the wind, once it starts to blow fresh sensitive wind slabs are likely to form.
• Be mindful that deep instabilities are still present and have produced recent large avalanches.