Anticipate wind and storm slab reactivity and size to increase throughout the day on Wednesday.
Be alert to wind and storm slab formation throughout the day on Wednesday with new snow and increasing winds. Small surface avalanches have the potential to step down to deep weak layers producing larger than expected avalanches.
A widespread crust with surface hoar and/or facets, buried in early December is buried 120-200 cm deep. While this layer exists on all aspects, it's most likely to be triggered by a heavy load in wind-loaded terrain.
No new avalanche activity has been reported since the weekend.
A widespread avalanche cycle occurred late last week during stormy weather, with avalanches up to size 3 reported, failing on the weak layer buried in early December.
A few rider-triggered, smaller wind slab avalanches were reported over the weekend.
New snow is accumulating over a variety of surface hoar and faceted snow in sheltered terrain and old wind-affected surfaces in exposed terrain.
A widespread crust can be found in the upper snowpack from rain and warm temperatures earlier in January. Reports suggest this layer is bonding well.
A crust along with surface hoar and/or facets persists down roughly 100 to 200 cm from the surface. This layer produced large avalanches during last week's storm.
Tuesday Night
Cloudy with up to 5 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Wednesday
Cloudy with 10 to 20 cm of snow. 40 to 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 30 to 50 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Friday
Mostly cloudy. 20 to 40 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
