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

Low (1)

Valid Fri Jan 17 4:00pm PST 4 hours ago Until Sat Jan 18 4:00pm PST

Periods of low danger can be a good time to increase your exposure.

Continue to use normal caution and good travel habits in avalanche terrain.

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

A sun crust is present on the surface and within the upper snowpack, on steep south-facing slopes. In some areas a new layer of surface hoar is growing.

In sheltered terrain, 10–15 cm of snow overlays a layer of surface hoar from early January. This interface may be deeper on wind-loaded slopes.

An older weak layer from early December, consisting of a surface hoar/facet/crust combination, is buried 50 to 120 cm deep. However, snowpack tests and the absence of recent activity indicate it is no longer a significant concern.

The lower snowpack is generally strong and bonded.

Avalanche Activity

On Wednesday, several small (size 1) human and solar-triggered natural avalanches were reported out of steep south-facing terrain.

With the current weather forecast and snowpack conditions, we foresee both natural and human-triggered avalanches to remain unlikely.

If you venture into the backcountry, please consider submitting your observations to the MIN.