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
Moderate (2)
Slab properties is the name of the game at the moment. Treat any snow that feels hard or slabby with caution.
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
Around 30 to 50 cm of snow accumulated since last Friday. This snow has been redistributed by strong wind from various directions at higher elevations but it remains soft in wind-sheltered terrain. The snow overlies various layers that it may not bond well to, including faceted grains, surface hoar crystals in wind-sheltered openings, and a hard melt-freeze crust on sun-exposed slopes.
The middle to upper portion of the snowpack between approximately 60 and 120 cm is relatively weak with numerous other layers of faceted grains, surface hoar, and/or crusts that formed over the month of January.
The lower snowpack is strong.
Avalanche Activity
Wind slabs were observed in alpine terrain on all aspects on Tuesday.
On Monday, riders triggered small storm slab avalanches within the recent storm snow. They were 20 cm deep at treeline on northerly aspects. These add to the many small to large (size 1 to 2) slabs observed on the weekend, on all aspects and elevations.
Similar avalanches remain triggerable by humans anywhere a hard, consolidated slab of snow rests on weak layers. Read more about this problem here.