A major winter storm is moving into the forecast area. Strong winds and abundant snowfall will create blizzard like conditions throughout the day and increase in intensity through the night. As the new storm snow loads our fragile snowpack, we are expecting a large natural avalanche cycle to occur. Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Pay close attention to avoid riding in areas that have overhead hazard, large avalanches could spill into the meadows and through the trees.
Strong SW flow and heavy amounts of snow are forecasted today. Snow will spill over and wrap around terrain features. New snow loading from the wind can happen rapidly and be dangerous even in small terrain features.
Our entire snowpack is poor in structure, sitting on a faceted, sugary snow at the bottom of the snowpack next to the ground. This snow has been gaining strenght over time, however with the rapid loading of this weekends storm, we are expecting natural failures to occur. Persistent Slabs have the ability to wrap around terrain features and often break farther and larger than one expects. Avoid these areas and their run out zones.
Rapid wind and high snow fall rates will create a rapid loading of new snow. The new snow and wind will create Storm Slabs, some of which will fall on buried Surface Hoar in protected areas.
As the winter storm impacts our area, visibility will be reduced. Heavy snowfall amounts and high winds will create dangerous conditions in avalanche terrain. The strom is forecasted to last through monday morning.
