Terrain sheltered from the wind will be the place to find the best riding.
Verify conditions as you travel. The snowpack is highly variable and weather could vary across the forecast area.
The snow overnight Wednesday and into Thursday may not amount to much, but if there is enough to produce visibly blowing snow, expect to find small, reactive wind slabs in leeward and cross-loaded terrain.
Large, steep, open slopes with shallow snowpacks are the most likely place to trigger a large avalanche on this layer. To avoid this problem, choose terrain sheltered from the wind that tends to catch and hold more snow.
No new avalanches have been reported in the past week.
If you are traveling in the mountains consider posting to the MIN.
Expect 5 to 10 cm of new snow to be covering wind-affected surfaces in exposed terrain on all aspects and elevations. Moderate to strong south and southwest winds will likely be forming deeper deposits in leeward terrain. Ongoing cold temperatures have softened the upper snowpack in sheltered terrain.
A weak layer of facets and a crust from early December is buried 60 to 100 cm deep. This layer exists on all aspects up to 1750 m.
At the highway elevation, the snow is 120 cm deep, and in the alpine exceeds 200 cm.
Wednesday Night
Cloudy with 2 to 4 cm of snow. 30 to 45 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature - 6 °C.
Thursday
Cloudy with 2 to 6 cm of snow. 35 to 50 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature - 5 °C.
Friday
Partly cloudy with 3 to 10 cm of snow. 40 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature - 3 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy with 3 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
