Avalanche Forecast

Moderate - Forecast snowfall amounts are uncertain

Overnight: Light to moderate northwest winds combined with convective flurries and alpine temperatures around -15. In some areas flurries may be heavy at times resulting in 5-10 cm. Tuesday: A mix of sun and cloud with periods of flurries and light southwest winds. Alpine temperatures remain around -15. Wednesday: Overcast with light winds and convective flurries, some areas may see 5-10 cm of new snow. Thursday: Overcast with convective flurries and light easterly winds. Alpine temperatures may be close to -20 in the morning.

On Sunday we had one report of a natural cornice fall size 2.0 and a skier accidentally triggered a size 1.0 avalanche. Storm slab avalanches were widespread on Saturday up to size 2.5.

Just under a week of stormy weather has blanketed the region in 45-70 cm of new snow. The snowfall was accompanied by moderate to strong southerly winds, which promoted the formation of touchy storm slabs at upper elevations. The new snow has buried faceted surface snow, thin sun crust on steep solar aspects, as well as surface hoar reported in sheltered areas in some parts of the region previous to the storm. About 75-100 cm below the surface you'll likely find the mid-February interface, which is composed of a thick rain crust up to about 1700 m, sun crusts on steep solar aspects, and spotty surface hoar on shaded aspects. Recent reports have suggested greater reactivity on this layer at lower elevations where the rain crust is more prominent. Professionals in the region have also warned that a 'threshold load' has been reached above this interface, particularly where it presents as a crust. Some lingering surface hoar layers from January are now down a metre or slightly more and the weak mid-December facets are down about 1.5 metres. These deep persistent weaknesses still have the potential to react to human triggers or smaller storm slab avalanches.