Avalanche Forecast

No new avalanches were reported in the past few days in the region but observations are limited.

We expect that fresh, reactive wind slabs will build overnight and throughout the day on Monday. These slabs may be reactive to human triggering and have a very real potential to step-down to deeper instabilities with a weak and shallow snowpack below.

Large natural and human-triggered persistent slab avalanches will be possible with active wind-loaded and several layers of concern in the mid and lower snowpack.

If you are out in the backcountry please consider filling out a Mountain Information Network report.

New snow continues to gradually accumulate. Strong westerly winds will continue to affect wind-exposed terrain and build fresh wind slabs in lee areas. On steep solar aspects, and sun crust may exist and at lower elevations, a rain crust exists.

Snowpack depths are shallower than normal, and several buried weak layers have been a concern over the past few weeks. One is a recently buried surface hoar layer found 30 to 60cm deep in sheltered terrain features at treeline and above. At this same depth, a crust exists on steep south-facing slopes. Another layer of facets, crust, and surface hoar was buried around Christmas and is now 50 to 90cm deep. Finally, a layer of large, weak facets buried in November is found near the bottom of the snowpack. This layer is likely most problematic in alpine terrain, where shallower avalanches could scrub down to these basal facets.

Sunday night

Mainly cloudy with flurries, trace to 5 cm of accumulation. Alpine temperatures around -8 C. Ridge wind west 60-100 km/h. Freezing level drops to valley bottom.

Monday

Cloudy with flurries, less than 5 cm of accumulation. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -5 C. Ridge wind west 50-90 km/h. Freezing level rises to 1000 m.

Tuesday

A mix of sun and cloud. Alpine temperatures reach a high of -5 C. Ridge wind northwest 40-60 km/h. Freezing level rises to 1100 m.

Wednesday

Partially cloudy with isolated flurries. Alpine temperatures rise to -2 C. Ridge wind northwest 45-60 km/h. Freezing level rises to 1500 m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Avoid steep, rocky, and wind effected areas where triggering slabs is more likely.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
• Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.
• Avoid all avalanche terrain during periods of strong wind.