Stick to low-angle, low-consequence terrain and avoid big overhead slopes. Large avalanches continue to be remotely triggered and are propagating widely.
Wind affected snow can be found on most aspects. There is potential for wind slabs to step down to deeper layers triggering larger avalanches.
Persistent weak layers including crust/facet combos and buried surface hoar have been very reactive to human and machine triggers recently, resulting in some very large avalanches.
Numerous large and very large natural, explosive, and human-triggered avalanches have occurred across the region over the last few days. These include several very large (size 3) remotely triggered slabs.
Remote triggers indicate a sensitive snowpack and the need for very conservative terrain choices.
Recent avalanches have occurred on all aspects and at various elevations, on buried weak layers up to 100 cm deep.
Click on the photos below for more details.
Strong winds have created widespread wind effect and built reactive wind slabs at treeline and above. Wind direction has varied so you can expect these slabs on all aspects. In sheltered areas, new surface hoar is growing.
Several persistent weak layers are buried between 50 to 120 cm deep. These weak layers include hard crusts, weak facets and surface hoar.
The recent storm snow is not bonding well to these underlying persistent weak layers. These layers have been producing ongoing avalanche reactivity, including remote triggering and very large step-down avalanches.
Saturday Night
Mostly cloudy, with 0 to 2 cm of snow. 20 to 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -12 °C.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud. 30 km/h southeast ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -16 °C.
Monday
Sunny. 10 to 20 km/h variable ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature around -18 °C.
Tuesday
Sunny. 10 km/h variable ridgetop wind. Temperature inversion with treeline temperature around -15 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
