West Slopes North

High pressure continues. Expect challenging travel over variable, firm, or melted-out surfaces, aside from spring corn conditions on southerly slopes midday.  Stay alert for lingering avalanche concerns, mainly presenting as overhead hazards in steep terrain related to our recent warm temperatures.

Avalanche hazard remains low. Your biggest challenge in the backcountry right now is probably traveling across firm and bumpy or variable surfaces. Some areas are melting out, exposing more rocks and trees, and creeks are opening up as well.

Many surfaces are firm, with solid crusts noted in the top foot of the snowpack. Softening is occurring on southerly slopes midday. You could find unsupportable, punchy snow at lower elevations as well. North-facing aspects remain hard. A couple inches of snow from nearly a week ago are overlying the crust on north-facing slopes above 5000ft. 

Now is a good time to start thinking about snow surfaces, as we’ll finally get some new snow on Sunday. The low-density deposits on upper elevation northerly slopes may be recrystallizing (faceting, or forming weak, sugary snow). Surface hoar could also be present. If new snow lands on these weak layers, avalanche conditions could get very touchy. If you’re heading to upper elevation northerly slopes, let us know what you see on the surface. You can submit an observation HERE. 

In the meantime, keep thinking about cornices peeling off in the heat of the day, or glide avalanches releasing. Right now, although unlikely, glide avalanches would probably occur on southerly slopes as they are getting the most warming. If you’re traveling across areas with a glide crack or large cornice looming above, travel quickly through the area.