Avalanche Forecast

Good - -1

Friday: Dry with increasing cloud cover and flurries possible in the evening. Freezing levels around 700m and light winds. Saturday: Cloudy but dry with moderate precipitation starting in the evening. Freezing levels are expected to rise to 1500m and southwesterly winds increase to moderate with the onset of precipitation. Sunday: Moderate snowfall with strong southwesterly winds.

Widespread natural avalanche activity up to Size 3 was reported on Wednesday. Fresh storm and wind slabs, as well as deeply buried persistent slabs remain sensitive to human triggers.

Weaknesses within and under the 60-100+cm of storm snow will need some time to settle and strengthen. Persistent weaknesses remain a concern in the many parts of the region. Buried surface hoar on sheltered treeline slopes and below and facets with associated crusts in exposed treeline and alpine areas are probably down well over a metre in most places. Basal facets remain a concern in shallow snowpack areas, especially where the snowpack is overlaying summer firn on slopes that have already produced deep persistent slab avalanches and have been reloaded. Wind-loading has resulted in highly variable slab thicknesses with the potential for fractures triggered in highly sensitive thin slab areas to propagate into highly destructive deep slab avalanches. Furthermore, weaknesses within the slab create the potential for step-down fractures. A recently buried thin hard rain crust that extends into alpine elevations is also providing a poor bond to overlying deep hard wind slabs.