Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

The cold arctic outflow will reside as an active weather pattern reaches the Coast tomorrow bringing slightly warmer temperatures, strong winds and new snow. Friday: Snow amounts 5-10 cm with ridgetop winds light from the southeast. Alpine temperatures near -6 and freezing levels 600 m. Saturday: Snow amounts 8-12 cm with ridgetop winds light-gusting strong from the southwest. Alpine temperatures near -5 and freezing levels rising to 800 m.Sunday: Snow amounts 20-30 cm with ridgetop winds moderate-gusting strong from the southwest. Alpine temperatures near -8 and freezing levels 900 m.

No new avalanches were reported on Thursday. New snow and wind may build fresh wind slabs on leeward slopes.  Sluffing is likely from steeper terrain features.

Strong winds have formed stiff, yet reactive wind slabs in the lee of exposed terrain. Up to 15 cm of snow sits above a thin breakable sun crust and isolated pockets of buried surface hoar. Some recent snowpack tests have shown hard, yet sudden planar results on the mid-January interface (facets) buried approximately 60-100 cm down. A total of 60-120 cm of settled storm snow now forms the upper snowpack and is generally bonded to a crust below. The exception may be thin rocky areas. The mid and lower snowpack are generally well settled, but still feature a number of facet and crust layers that are currently dormant but require monitoring with significant change