Avalanche Forecast

In the last several days, no avalanche activity has been reported. There is a high potential for human-triggered avalanches as slab formation probability is at high.

Please continue to post your reports and photos to the Mountain Information Network.

Around 35 to 40 cm of new snow now sits on a variety of surfaces. It will have been redistributed at higher elevations by moderate to strong southwest winds.

A melt-freeze crust formed in mid-January is now buried 50 to 80 cm deep. Weak, faceted crystals have been observed growing above it meaning it may pose a problem going forward. On the bright side, it is one of several crusts bridging other weak layers in the mid to lower snowpack, meaning that triggering deeper avalanches on them is unlikely.

Snowpack depths are significantly below seasonal averages for this time of year, 150 to 200 cm at treeline, tapering rapidly below 1500 m.

Tuesday Night

Cloudy, up to 10 cm accumulation, winds southwest 35 to 50 km/h, treeline temperatures -3 to -5 C.

Wednesday

Mostly sunny with cloudy periods, no accumulation, winds west 15 to 30 km/h, treeline temperatures -7 C.

Thursday

Sunny with possible cloudy periods, trace accumulation, winds south southwest 25 to 35, treeline temperatures warming to 0 C.

Friday

Cloudy with afternoon sunny breaks, up to 5 cm accumulation, winds southwest 25 to 30 km/h, treeline temperatures -2 to -4 C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Storm slabs in motion may step down to deeper layers resulting in large avalanches.
• Be carefull around freshly wind loaded features.
• The more the snow feels like a slurpy, the more likely loose wet avalanches will become.