Conditions remain dangerous due to the most recent winter storm. You could trigger slabs up to 2 feet deep in wind-affected areas and up to 3 feet deep if weak layers below the new snow are triggered. Avoid riding steep rocky terrain, and the many terrain traps in the area. This snowpack should have your hackles up.
Wind slabs built from 10-14" of recent snow exist above 8,000'. These could produce a large enough avalanche to easily bury a person. Expect slabs up to 2 feet thick in wind loaded areas and much deeper if these step down to the deeper persistent layers.
New and wind-loaded snow has added stress to buried weak layers formed during the month-long dry period in January. Triggering hard slab avalanches up to 3 feet deep is possible and more likely on N-NE aspects above 9,000'. Both wind-loaded and sheltered terrain may harbor buried surface hoar and weak facets. These weak layers have been involved in human-triggered avalanches in the past week here and in adjacent zones.
These slabs were triggered by snowmobilers near Grouse Mountain. Similar, but deeper, avalanche activity is possible on very steep, shaded slopes today.
2/12/2026
Skiers and riders have wisely stepped back in their terrain choices during and after the last storm. We are still gathering evidence about the nature of the current persistent slab avalanche problem. We do know some important factors. Over an inch of water weight was just added to this thick layer of 1mm facets, stability tests show propagation and most importantly, many recent avalanches have occurred, both natural during the storm as well as human-triggered ones just yesterday.
