Consider danger HIGH in the alpine if you see 20 cm or more of new snow.
Avoid avalanche terrain during periods of rapid loading from new snow and wind.
Storm slabs are expected to build overnight and throughout the day. These slabs will be most prone to triggering on wind-loaded lee slopes and where they overlie weak surface hoar.
Several small size 1 wind slabs were triggered by riders near the Torpy area on Tuesday. These slabs failed on a slippery crust at treeline. The field team was also able to trigger small slabs on surface hoar and witnessed shooting cracks in the Pine Pass area. See photos below.
Keep posting your observations to the Mountain Information Network!
5-20 cm fell in the region on Monday night. An additional 5 to 20 cm is expected to fall overnight and through Thursday. This new snow combined with strong west though southwest winds is expected to raise the avalanche danger significantly. The highest snow amounts are forecast for the central region - areas like the Torpy and Sugarbowl.
Combined, this new snow is covering a variety of surfaces including: Old wind affected snow, crusts, facets and surface hoar.
We continue to track early January and early December surface hoar and crust layers down 30 to 50 cm and 80 to 130 cm, respectively. Both are considered unlikely to trigger.
Wednesday Night
Cloudy with 5 to 15 cm of snow, highest amounts for the central region (Torpy and Sugarbowl). 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high temperature -6 °C.
Thursday
Cloudy with 2 to 10 cm of snow, highest amounts for the central region (Torpy and Sugarbowl). 40 to 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline high temperature -8 °C.
Friday
Mostly sunny. 30 to 40 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high temperature -9 °C.
Saturday
Sunny. 25 to 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7°C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
