Avalanche Forecast

Fair - Wind effect is extremely variable

Synopsis: The ridge of high pressure finally flattens allowing a weak disturbance to slide down from the northwest bringing more cloud, moderate westerly winds, and a chance of flurries on Friday. Another pulse is expected on Saturday afternoon maybe 3-5 cm. The snow level stays near valley bottom on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is still a little fuzzy but it looks like we will see moderate precipitation. The freezing level should start to climb maybe to 800-1000 m by the end of the day.

Avalanche activity has slowed down over the past couple days with mild alpine temperatures and slackening winds. On Wednesday only small loose wet sluffs were reported in steep sun-exposed terrain. Earlier in the week there were reports of several large wind slab avalanches throughout the region, some of which resulting in injuries or very close calls. Most of these slides were in response to strong outflow winds.

In open alpine terrain you will find heavily wind affected surfaces with hard and soft wind slabs on south and west aspects and scoured surfaces or dense wind-pressed snow on windward slopes. Steep south facing slopes may also be going through a melt-freeze cycle. In sheltered areas at and below treeline you might find dry faceting powder with surface hoar (SH) growing above. A layer of SH buried last weekend is now down 10-20 cm and was reported to be widespread - one to watch when the snow returns. The mid-December SH layer may still be lurking in specific areas (sheltered, shady, near open water sources) down 40-70 cm. Below 2000 m and buried 60-80 cm deep you might find a crust with facets or mixed forms above or below. One recent snowpack test gave a hard pops result on this layer, meaning its probably difficult to trigger but if triggered it could produce large deep slabs.