Avalanche Forecast

Tuesday night: Cloudy, 20-30 cm of snow, moderate southwest wind, alpine temperature -4 C.

Wednesday: Cloudy, snow tapering by noon with 5-10 cm of accumulation, moderate west wind, alpine temperature -9 C.

Thursday: Partly cloudy, isolated flurries with trace accumulations, light west wind, alpine high temperature -10 C.

Friday: Cloudy, 5-15 cm of snow, moderate south wind, alpine high temperature -10 C. 

There have been many reports of large (size 2-2.5) avalanches from both natural and human triggers on a variety of aspects and elevations releasing on surface hoar layers formed in late December. These avalanches have been breaking 60-90 cm deep. Several of them have been remote-triggered.

As the new snow settles, storm slab avalanches are likely to be triggered and have the potential to step down to these deeper layers, forming very large and destructive avalanches.

Up to 60 cm of new snow is forecast to accumulate by Wednesday afternoon with moderate to strong southwest wind. This will form a new storm slab problem that will need to be managed conservatively. Expect areas where the snow is being drifted by wind to be more reactive. 

Two layers of surface hoar from late December are now buried 60-120 cm deep. These layers continue to produce large avalanches across aspects and elevations. Small avalanches in the new snow have the potential to step-down to these persistent weak layers.

• Only the most simple non-avalanche terrain free of overhead hazard is appropriate at this time.
• Be careful to keep storm day fever from luring you out into bigger terrain features.
• If triggered, storm slabs in-motion may step down to deeper layers and result in very large avalanches.