Avalanche danger is elevated from all the recent storms. Travel cautiously and keep your eyes open for signs of instability.
Storm slab formation will likely continue Friday night and Saturday. Riders could also trigger deeper, older storm and wind slabs, particularly in steep, lee terrain features at higher elevations.
Explosives triggered many large (up to size 3) storm slabs on Wednesday and Thursday, mostly in alpine terrain on westerly and northerly slopes. It remains possible that riders could trigger similar avalanches on the weekend as recent storm snow and incoming snow continue to bond to the snowpack.
Watch out for early-season hazards like creeks, logs, and rocks, particularly at lower elevations.
Intense snow and strong wind from earlier this week have formed widespread storm slabs as well as wind slabs in lee terrain features. More snow and wind on Friday night will likely form new slabs.
Various melt-freeze crusts are found in the lower half of the snowpack, which are not concerning avalanche layers.
The snowpack is around 120 to 150 cm at treeline and decreases at low elevations.
Friday Night
Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow, while some local amounts may be much less to the east of the region. 10 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Saturday
Cloudy with 2 to 10 cm of snow. 10 to 30 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with 0 to 5 cm of snow. 0 to 20 km/h south ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Monday
Mix of sun and cloud. 0 to 20 km/h east ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
