Avalanche Forecast

Good - The weather pattern is stable

Friday: A mix of sun and cloud with a slight chance of flurries. The freezing level is around 1800-2000 m and ridge winds are light or moderate from the W. Saturday: A mix of sun and cloud. The freezing level remains near 1800 m and winds ease to light. Sunday: Mainly sunny. The freezing level jumps to a little over 2000 m and wind could rise to moderate SW by the end of the day.

Recent reports include several dry loose sluffs in steep terrain, and thin soft wind slabs reacting to slope cuts with minimal propagation. Explosive testing also resulted in one cornice fall that did not trigger a slab on the slope below.

Roughly 5-10 cm of recent storm snow adds to the variable amounts of dry facetted snow on top of the mid-February crust with associated buried surface hoar in sheltered areas, or more recent melt-freeze crusts on sun-exposed slopes. The late-Jan crust/surface hoar layer can be found about a metre below the surface in deeper snowpack areas. The mid-January surface hoar, can be found below that. These layers have gained significant strength, and chances of triggering these weaknesses have decreased dramatically. However, triggering may be possible with a large input such as cornice fall, or an avalanche stepping down, especially on slopes that see a lot of sun.