Avalanche Forecast

No new avalanches were reported in the past few days.

On Saturday, a large (size 2) avalanche was observed at Hassler. It was potentially remotely triggered by a snowmobiler, and propagated widely across a sparsely treed slope.

Although there has been a decline in observed avalanche activity, triggering a large persistent slab avalanche remains possible and terrain should be chosen with care.

New storm slabs will likely be found at all elevations. At lower elevations, a rain crust exists near the surface, with reported elevations extending up roughly 1200 m.

Snowpack depths are shallower than normal, and several buried weak layers have been a concern over the past few weeks. One is a recently buried surface hoar layer found 20 to 40 cm deep in sheltered terrain features at treeline and above. At this same depth, a crust exists on steep south facing slopes. Another layer of facets, crust, and surface hoar was buried around Christmas and is now 40 to 70 cm deep. Finally, a layer of large, weak facets buried in November is found near the bottom of the snowpack. This layer is likely most problematic in alpine terrain, where shallower avalanches could scrub down to these basal facets.

Recent observations suggest the buried weak layers are gaining strength, but not enough to trust them in high consequence terrain.

Wednesday Night

Cloudy with trace amounts of new snow expected. Moderate westerly winds and a low of -7 at 1500m.

Thursday

Cloudy with flurries bringing around 5cm of new snow. Strong westerly winds and a high of -6 at 1500m.

Friday

Mostly cloudy with flurries bringing around 5cm of new snow. Strong west to southwest winds and a high of -2 at 1500m.

Saturday

Cloudy with up to 10cm of new snow. Strong westerly winds and a high of -3 at 1500m.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Be carefull around freshly wind loaded features.
• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Use conservative route selection and resist venturing out into complex terrain.
• Avoid thin areas like rock outcroppings where you're most likely to trigger avalanches failing on deep weak layers.
• Carefully assess open slopes and convex rolls where buried surface hoar may be preserved.