Avalanche Forecast

A frontal system will push into the region Monday night bringing cloudy skies Tuesday with light flurries. By the end of Tuesday some models are forecasting 15cm of new snow with another 10cm through Wednesday and Thursday. Winds on Tuesday will be strong to extreme (up to 100km/h) out of the W or SW. Temperatures are expected to reach a high of about -9 in the Alpine.

Nothing new observed today.

Several snowpits were dug across the region today, and all showed the same conditions. Surface hoar was evident in all sheltered areas, with very large crystals in some spots. Otherwise the snowpack basically consists of 2 layers. On top is 70 to 100cm of settled snow from the previous storm. Below this sits 30 to 50cm of weak facets and depth hoar. Snowpack stability tests indicate failures in the basal layer ranging everywhere from easy to hard results. At upper elevations surface wind slabs are found on all aspects and range from 10 to 70cm deep.

• Use conservative route selection. Choose simple, low-angle, well-supported terrain with no overhead hazard.
• If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
• In areas where deep persistent slabs may exist, avoid shallow or variable depth snowpacks and unsupported terrain features.