Avalanche Forecast

A shift to cooler cloudy weather as a cold front crosses the region on Wednesday night.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Cloudy with a thin dusting of new snow, 40 km/h northwest wind, freezing level drops to valley bottom with treeline temperatures dropping to -8 C.

THURSDAY: Cloudy with a few sunny breaks, light north wind, freezing level climbs to 1600 m with treeline temperatures around -3 C.

FRIDAY: Mostly cloudy skies, light southwest wind, freezing level climbs to 1600 m with treeline temperatures around -2 C.

SATURDAY: Cloudy skies, light northeast wind, freezing level climbs to 1700 m with treeline temperatures around -2 C.

Warm temperatures over the past week resulted in widespread wet avalanche activity. The most notable activity was on Saturday where there was both widespread size 1-2 wet loose avalanches and a few larger and destructive (size 2.5-3.5) wet slab avalanches. The large wet slabs were mostly on south and west facing slopes. Avalanche activity has been on the decline since then with relatively cooler temperatures. A cornice fall triggered a large (size 3) slab avalanche on a north-facing alpine ridge in Glacier National Park on Tuesday.

The cooling trend will make wet avalanches problems unlikely in the coming days, making cornices the primary concern.

The upper snowpack has been undergoing a daily melt-freeze cycle, so with the cooling temperatures a hard crust will form everywhere except in high north-facing terrain where there still may be dry snow above 2300 m. There are no layers of concern in the snowpack, which has been melting and settling over the past week. Large cornices loom along many ridgelines.

• When a thick, melt-freeze surface crust is present, avalanche activity is unlikely.
• Minimize your exposure time below cornices.
• Minimize exposure to sun-exposed slopes when the solar radiation is strong.