Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain on Saturday

Overnight and Saturday: Strong Westerly winds are expected as the ridge of high pressure flattens and a trough moves into the interior from the Northwest. Alpine temperatures should stay a few degrees warmer than seasonal overnight as the weak warm front delivers a couple of cms. Moderate snow fall should start sometime in the morning when the trailing cold front moves across the region. Expect 10-15 cms with cooler temperatures and gusty West winds.Sunday: Unsettled cool air will be left behind as the next ridge of high pressure builds over the interior. Expect light Northerly winds and alpine temperatures down to about -12.0, with no precipitation.Monday: Mainly cloudy as the weak ridge of high pressure moves to the East.

Reports of storm snow avalanches are getting fewer, as the slab settles. Some natural cornice falls have been reported. Reports from some of the managed snowmobile areas are saying that the areas that have received a lot of compaction are not seeing storm snow avalanches. However, there is a concern that people who have been riding in these areas may be surprised by an active storm slab if they venture into lesser ridden areas, or steeper terrain that has not seen as much compaction.

There is a lot of variability in the new snow amounts across the region. New storm slabs are between 10-40 cms deep, and new wind slabs are up to 70 cms deep due to strong Northwest winds transporting the available new snow. Tests are showing easy to moderate shears at the storm snow interface. There are a couple of deeper buried surface hoar and crust layers that have been giving hard resistant planar results in snow profile tests. These deeper layers are not expected to be triggered by light additional loads, but may be triggered by storm snow avalanches in motion, or cornice fall.