Avalanche Forecast

Skies have been obscured, direct observations are limited. Given the sensitivity to loading it would be natural to expect the small cycle from the past few days carried over into today...we just can't see it.

Despite the continuous snowfall, we are seeing very little for overall snowpack growth. This is a good thing. It means the snow is settling as fast as it falls which translates into our snowpack gaining a bit of strength and hopefully starting to support the weight of a person. The flipside to this coin is the increased likelihood of encountering "storm" or settlement slabs in the lower alpine/higher treeline areas. So far we've seen these soft slabs at the bottom of large cliffs and large, planar open areas. As always, anticipate wind slabs in immediate lee, alpine areas. These have started to appear in the higher elevation, wind prone areas. The Oct crust remains the biggest concern within our young snowpack. It seems to be especially sensitive to snow loading and deserves some respect. The crust is more prevalent and widespread on polar aspects. When anticipating where it may be, remember that our snow coverage was spotty back in October.

Flurries and light snow will continue for the next 3 days. Some models are suggesting as much as 15cm by tomorrow afternoon, but given the underwhelming performance of this latest storm, don't bet the farm on the 15. Winds will be mostly from the W, but occasionally spin around to the NW. 2700m wind speeds will still be in the light range, with ridge speeds up to 25km. Temperatures will hold close to -8 for Sunday.

More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.

• Continue to make conservative terrain choices while the storm snow settles and stabilizes.
• Be careful with wind-loaded pockets, especially near ridge crests and rollovers.
• Keep in mind a buried crust offers an excellent bed surface for avalanches.