Avalanche Forecast

High -

We will get a break from the heavy snow for the next few days. Only trace amounts expected tomorrow. Treeline/low alpine winds will be steady at 30-35km.hr from the west. As for temperatures, they will hover around -10 all day. 

Numerous sz2's today at treeline and alpine elevations. These were on all aspects and involved the storm snow only. We also saw several larger sz3's that came out of alpine terrain. Similarly, they were on all aspects and only involved the storm snow.

Lots of new snow out there. We have anywhere from 35-60cm of settling storm snow from the last couple of days. Currently, this snow is low density in the valley bottoms, but stiffens up as elevation is gained. Alpine and treeline winds have begun to create fresh windslabs on eastern aspects. There are also buried windslabs within the storm snow. The Jan 29 (hard windslab/storm snow) interface is slower to bond than expected. Lots of avalanche activity on it in the past 24 hours. Deep layers are still hanging in there and so far not failing wit the new load.

• Be careful with wind slabs, especially in steep, unsupported and/or convex terrain features.
• Be careful as you transition into wind affected terrain.
• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Shooting cracks, whumphs and recent avalanches are strong indicators of an unstable snowpack.