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Backcountry Avalanche Advisory

As of Wednesday, Jan. 27

Please note that Backcountry refers to any areas outside the Ski Area Boundary

Alpine: Moderate through Friday

Treeline: Moderate through Friday

Below Treeline: Low through Friday

Travel Advisory: Loose storm snow and soft slabs are lying over a well settled snowpack. Surface hoar is buried in isolated areas below treeline. A period of mild and damp weather through the rest of the week should cause the surface layers to tighten up into moist slabs, even at higher elevations. Cornices are large, looming and unstable. Stay well back from cornices and give a wide safety margin if you need to travel below.

Avalanche Activity: Size 1 soft slabs were running naturally and were easily triggered on Monday with ski cutting in the ski area. Explosives testing on Tuesday resulted in isolated size 1 results. Cornice noses were very soft and reactive as well.

Snowpack: The new storm snow is sitting over variable old surfaces and was not bonding on Tuesday. Expect these storms shears to continue tightening. The upper snowpack appears to be generally well consolidated. The buried weaknesses from early December are now well bridged over in most areas but may still present themselves as failure planes with sufficient loading in areas where the snowpack remains relatively shallow.

Weather: A mild southerly flow of moist air is forecast to be held at bay by a strong upper ridge. This should result in mild and damp conditions with light precipitation and moderate winds, especially overnight Thursday and Friday.