Avalanche Forecast

Fair

Saturday: Mainly sunny and cool. Freezing level is at valley bottom with alpine temperatures around -12. Winds are light from the north-northwest. Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud. Freezing level remains at valley bottom. Winds are light to moderate from the north. Monday: A mix of sun and cloud. Alpine temperatures should rise during the day with an above freezing layer developing. Winds are moderate from the north. 

There are reports of a widespread natural avalanche cycle from Tuesday night and Wednesday. Slab avalanches up to size 3 were observed, with many events occurring below treeline and failing on the early January surface hoar layer. There are also a couple reports of skier triggered avalanches up to size 2 and avalanches being triggered from a distance.

Up to 15 cm of low density new snow sits on the previous 40-80 cm of storm snow from earlier in the week. Northerly outflow winds have produced pockets of new wind slabs in south facing terrain, and old dense wind slabs lurk below the surface on northerly aspects. A layer of surface hoar, facetted snow, and /or a crust exists at the base of the recent storm snow. Snowpack tests show that this interface is susceptible to human triggering and has the potential to propagate widely. No significant weaknesses have been reported recently below this in the mid snowpack layers. Near the base of the snowpack, a crust/facet layer exists, which is now unlikely to be triggered, except perhaps by heavy triggers in steep, shallow, rocky terrain where more facetting has taken place.