Avalanche Forecast

Good

A weak system will slide down the coast and start to affect the Interior on Saturday bringing mostly light snowfall amounts up to 10 cm. Ridgetop winds will be light-moderate from the west, switching to a northerly flow by Sunday. Alpine temperatures will hover around -15 and drop to -18 later Sunday. Conditions will remain cold and dry through Tuesday.

Natural avalanche activity has tapered off and skier/ rider triggered avalanches are the name of the game. On Wednesday, numerous skier triggered avalanches up to 1.5 were reported and I expect this to continue through the weekend. Remote triggering from a distance is still a concern.

In some parts of the region a thin breakable rime crust exists near the surface. The upper 40-90 cm of storm snow  is slowly consolidating into a slab above a touchy surface hoar layer buried mid-December. Below 2100 m this slab sits on a thick, solid crust/ surface hoar combo and acting as a perfect sliding layer. Persistent slabs will be touchy to the weight of a skier and rider, especially in wind effected areas where the slab is stiffer. Deeper in the snowpack is a hard rain crust with facets from early November. This is buried over 1 m down and is currently unreactive but triggering from shallow rocky, unsupported terrain remains a concern.