West Slopes Central

A lull before wetter weather and warmer temperatures come our way brings us a brief interlude of low avalanche danger. There’s a chance you could encounter wet, unsupportable snow at lower elevations and small wet snow avalanches. At upper elevations, conditions are very different, where a firm crust was coated with a few inches of snow Monday night, and lingering very small wind drifted pockets have an unlikely chance of avalanching with a human trigger.

Bumpy, firm surfaces are now softened with a thin coating of fresh snow. The fresh snow may have drifted into shallow wind slabs at uppermost elevations. Continued warmer temperatures at lower elevations softened the snowpack more in recent days. Sinking over a foot into wet, gloppy snow means it’s time to remove yourself from that area if there are steep slopes nearby.  Both of these conditions could result in a small chance of avalanches, still fitted under the low avalanche danger category. 

Avalanche problems from a few days ago are not completely out of the picture: glide cracks releasing and avalanching, and cornices breaking and tumbling downslope still make up a very small concern. 

Challenging travel comes to mind as our powder-coated slopes rapidly transitioned a week ago. The dichotomy of snow surfaces between upper and lower elevations is remarkable. Plenty of large, old avalanche debris piles make for very difficult crossings. Keep this in mind when planning your travel on Wednesday.