Carefully analyze the snowpack and plan to make terrain decisions with a conservative approach.
Wind slabs have likely developed near ridge tops and where new snow has been transported and deposited onto leeward terrain features.
In areas that terrain has been protected from the wind, we suspect that the storm slab may have buried surface hoar.
At the time of publishing this forecast, no new avalanches have been observed or reported.
A natural avalanche cycle is expected to have occurred during Saturdays storm.
If you are going out in the backcountry, please consider sharing your observations to the Mountain Information Network (MIN).
In the alpine, variable depths of 50 to 70 cm of settling storm snow overlies a firm crust at treeline. On north through east-facing slopes in the alpine that are protected from the wind are likely to have buried surface hoar which sits over moist snow and is estimated to be found down 50 cm.
Strong south winds have likely scoured snow accumulation from exposed alpine features, redistributing it to North aspect terrain. Expect windslab depths to vary and in specific terrain features potentially deeper than 100 cm.
Snow depths at treeline vary significantly across the region, ranging from 65 cm to 200 cm and taper substantially at elevations below 1000 m .
Sunday Night
Flurries 1cm. 20 to 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C. Freezing level 900 m.
Monday
Snow 5 to 10 cm. 30 to 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1000 m.
Tuesday
Snow 1 to 5 cm. 20 to 40 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C. Freezing level 1200 m.
Wednesday
Rain and snow 20 to 80 mm. 60 to 80 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature +1 °C. Freezing level 1800 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
