Dangerous avalanche conditions exist. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding, and conservative decision-making are essential.
Recent storm snow has created fresh and reactive slabs at all elevations. The largest and most reactive will likely be in the alpine on north and east aspects where winds continue to load lee slopes.
No new avalanche was reported in the region.
We expect those who head into the backcountry on Saturday will see evidence of a natural storm slab avalanche cycle form within the storm.
Thanks for sharing your observations via the MIN if you are going out into the backcountry.
30 to 50 cm of storm snow and moderate southwest winds have built reactive storm slabs at treeline and above. Storm snow overlies wind-affected snow at upper elevations and a thin melt-freeze crust on southerly slopes. At lower elevations, the snowpack is expected to be heavy and wet.
A supportive crust is found 60 to 80 cm deep on all aspects except on high, north-facing alpine terrain, and the recent settling snow is bonding well to it.
A weak layer of facets and surface hoar from February is now 90 to 150 cm deep and a layer of facets and surface hoar from late January is 130 to 190 cm deep. No recent notable test results have been seen on these layers.
Friday Night
Cloudy with light flurries, 5 to 15 cm of new snow. 30 to 40 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -6 °C. Freezing level 800 m.
Saturday
Cloudy with isolated flurries, 2 cm of new snow. 20 to 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 1100 m.
Sunday
Cloudy with precipitation switching from snow to rain, 10 to 30 mm of mixed precipitation. 30 to 40 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +2 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.
Precipitation continues overnight, 10 to 35 mm of rain.
Monday
Cloudy with light rain, 3 mm of rain. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +4 °C. Freezing level 2000 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
