Avalanche Forecast

A size 2 wind slab was remotely triggered in the Russle Creek area on Saturday. We suspect the wind slab was overlaying a thin melt-freeze crust and/or a layer of surface hoar. It occurred near ridgetop at 2350 m on a west aspect.

A number of loose dry avalanches in steep terrain have been reported over the weekend.

Ongoing snow has now buried a layer of large surface hoar in wind-sheltered terrain and sun crusts on steep solar aspects.

A slightly older layer of large surface hoar may be found down roughly 50-70 cm below the old snow surface.

The middle of the snowpack is generally well consolidated and stiff but does contain some old persistent weak layers. These layers have not produced avalanches in quite a long time and are not currently a concern unlike neighboring regions to the north, but could wake up with significant storm loading or warming.

The lower snowpack consists of a layer of weak, sugary crystals that is slowly gaining strength and doesn't currently appear to present the same problem as neighboring regions to the north and east. However, we continue to track the layer and watch for any signs that it might wake up and produce very large avalanches.

Monday night

Snowfall, 10 to 25 cm. Moderate southwest alpine winds. Treeline temperatures 0 to -5 C.

Tuesday

Cloudy and snowing, 5 to 15 cm. Moderate southwest alpine winds, switching to the northeast by end of the day. Treeline temperatures -5 to -10 C.

Wednesday

Cloudy with sunny periods, no precipitation. Strong east alpine winds. Treeline temperature -15 to -20 C.

Thursday

Cloudy with sunny periods, no precipitation. Strong northeast alpine winds. Treeline temperature -15 to -25 C.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be careful to keep storm day fever from luring you out into bigger terrain features.
• Expect slab conditions to change drastically as you move into wind exposed terrain.
• Storm snow and wind is forming touchy slabs. Use caution in lee areas in the alpine and treeline.