Avalanche Forecast

Nothing new was observed or reported.

Well its hard to talk about last weeks small snow amounts still! 5-10cm of snow is overlying a thin crust from the previous warm temperatures. This crust is just thick enough for you to break through and make the skiing poor....

Watch for windslabs in alpine areas in the upper snowpack making thin weak spots harder to spot. Where the snowpack is thin these are the places wherein a skier may trigger the weak basal facets. As the snowpack above the weaker base has become more cohesive the potential for wide propagation increases. This will be a common theme this winter and you should always be thinking about consequences of an avalanche. Wind slabs may also cause the weak base to fail. Its a tough snowpack this year and unfortunately, it isn't likely to change much this season.

Ice climbers in the Ghost and front ranges should watch for pockets of windslabs along routes that may be triggered.

Wednesdays temperatures will be in the -10c range with winds increasing to strong by mid-day. There may be a few isolated flurries along the Spray lakes road overnight but accumulations are minimal.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid shallow, rocky areas where the snowpack transitions from thick to thin.
• Be aware of the potential for surprisingly large avalanches due to deeply buried weak layers.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.