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)

Valid Sat Feb 15 4:00pm PST 22 hours ago Until Sun Feb 16 4:00pm PST

Flurries will increase the load on weak layers in the snowpack. Avalanches remain possible where loose snow consolidates into a cohesive slab.

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

Ongoing cold, clear, and dry conditions have largely preserved soft surface conditions, while variable wind-affected surfaces are present in exposed terrain at treeline and above.

Various layers buried at the end of January are now approximately 20 to 50 cm below the surface. These include sun crusts on sun-exposed slopes, surface hoar in shaded terrain at treeline and below, and weak faceted grains elsewhere.

Beneath these buried layers, the snowpack remains weak and faceted due to the prolonged dry conditions throughout January.

The mid and lower snowpack is generally well-settled and strong.

Avalanche Activity

Over the last week, several small skier-triggered avalanches (size 1 to 1.5) have been reported across the region. These avalanches mostly occurred on weak layers of facets and/or sun crusts roughly 20 to 40 cm below the surface.

On Wednesday a size 2.5 avalanche was remotely triggered by a helicopter landing at ridgetop. The avalanche started in a steep shallow start zone on an east aspect around the treeline, failing on a weak layer roughly 100 cm below the surface.