Avalanche Forecast

Avalanche Forecasts are for use by experienced backcountry travelers in uncontrolled sidecountry and backcountry terrain. These forecasts and conditions do not apply to open, in-bounds terrain at ski resorts, which is subject to avalanche control by local resort ski patrol.

Avalanche Rating

Considerable (3)

Valid Fri Dec 13 4:00pm PST 4 hours ago Until Sat Dec 14 4:00pm PST

Choose small, low consequence slopes.

This next pulse of precipitation may be enough to tip the scales and result in the early December surface hoar becoming easily rider triggered.

More Detail

To get the complete forecast with additional graphics and details, please view the Avalanche Canada Zone forecast provided by Avalanche Canada.

Snowpack Discussion

By the end of the day on December 14th up to 25 cm of new snow may have fallen. This will be accompanied by moderate to strong southerly wind forming larger deposits on northerly aspects. In sheltered terrain this new snow could overlie surface hoar.

Another layer of surface hoar can be found down 30 to 60 cm. At lower elevations or on steep south facing slopes a crust may be present at this interface instead of surface hoar.

The remainder of the snowpack is strong without any deeper concerns at this time.

Avalanche Activity

Over the past 2 days avalanche activity has been primarily explosive controlled. These avalanches have been up to size 2.5 and generally on north and east aspects.

We expect avalanche activity to increase throughout the day on Sunday with the arrival of the forecast weather.