Avalanche Forecast

Sunday could bring 10cm of new snow, temperatures reaching -5C and SW winds as strong as 100km/h. All of this points to increased avalanche activity.

Visibility was somewhat limited today, but a few loose dry avalanches up to size 1.5 were observed in very steep Alpine terrain in N, E and S aspects.

10 to 15cm of snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, and light flurries continued through much of Saturday. Winds were strong to extreme form W and SW at upper elevations creating widespread wind slab conditions on N, E and SE aspects. At treeline these slab conditions are less profound, but are still present in wind prone areas. Watch for wind slabs in the immediate lee of ridgelines and in cross-loaded and lee gully features. Where the recent wind slab overlies the November crust (which has been found as high as 2700m in the Highwood), these slabs could be quite sensitive to human triggering. The November crust is now buried between 20 and 50cm deep. The extensive winds on Saturday were also causing some loose dry avalanches in extreme terrain.

• Avoid lee and cross-loaded slopes at and above treeline.
• Avoid freshly wind loaded features, especially near ridge crests, roll-overs and in steep terrain.
• Be carefull with sluffing in steep terrain, especially above cliffs and terrain traps.
• Ice climbers should be equipped with avalanche safety gear.
• Avoid terrain traps such as gullies and cliffs where the consequence of any avalanche could be serious.