Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Timing, track, or intensity of incoming weather system is uncertain

Westerly winds and cloud increasing overnight with freezing level at valley bottoms. Moderate westerly winds in the morning becoming strong southwest in the afternoon combined with 3-5 cm of snow. Alpine temperatures should warm up to about -7 and the valleys should be close to zero. Cloudy with light snow and strong southwest winds on Sunday. Some periods of broken skies with alpine temperatures around -10 and light to moderate southwest winds on Monday.

A skier accidentally triggered a pocket of alpine wind slab size 1.5 on a north aspect that was 20 cm deep and 20 metres wide in the north of the region. Loose dry snow continues to be reported falling naturally from steep terrain up to size 1.0.

Light and dry new snow has been transported into stiff wind slabs that are 10-20 cm deep in the alpine and at treeline. The upper snowpack is generally loose and unconsolidated in sheltered areas sitting on a mix of surface hoar, facets, and sun crusts that were buried January 4th. Some operations continue to track buried surface hoar from early December. While test results on deeply buried surface hoar continue to show planar results when hard forces are applied, there have not been any avalanches reported failing on this layer. I have removed the persistent weak layer problem from the front page, and we will continue to monitor reports from operators in this region. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well settled and strong.