Avalanche Forecast

Explosives and riders triggered many small to large (size 1 to 2) storm and wind slabs on Wednesday, primarily out of alpine terrain. They were mostly 20 to 50 cm deep.

A fatal avalanche incident occurred on Saturday near Gardiner Creek. It is believed that it occurred on the early-February layer described in the Snowpack Summary. You can read more details here.

Looking forward, it remains likely that humans could trigger high-consequence slab avalanches.

Substantial snowfall associated with strong southwest wind and warming quickly built storm slabs that will likely remain very touchy. These slabs are loading weak faceted snow, surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain, and a hard melt-freeze crust on sun-exposed slopes.

A widespread crust that formed in early February is buried around 80 to 120 cm deep. Weak faceted grains may be found above the crust, which is a recipe for high-consequence avalanches.

The remainder of the snowpack is generally settled.

Thursday Night

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -9 °C.

Friday

Cloudy with 5 to 10 cm of snow. 20 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -8 °C.

Saturday

Mostly cloudy with 2 to 5 cm of snow. 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -13 °C.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy with 2 to 5 cm of snow. 10 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -10 °C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Travel in alpine terrain is not recommended.
• Avoid exposure to overhead avalanche terrain, avalanches may run surprisingly far.
• Remote triggering is a concern, watch out for adjacent and overhead slopes.
• Persistent slabs have potential to pull back to lower angle terrain.