The hazard will gradually increase on Tuesday with new snow, wind and warmer temperatures. How much the hazard rises will depend on snow amounts and intensity of winds.
New snow and mod-strong SW winds will build new wind slabs on Tuesday. These will become easier to trigger as snow amounts increase. Some sluffing may also occur in steeper terrain.
Another 10-20 cm of new snow is expected by end of day on Tuesday. The snow will be accompanied by mod to strong SW winds. Freezing levels will rise to 2000m on Tuesday and then drop again on Wednesday.
10-50 cm of new snow overlays a variety of surfaces that include wind pressed snow, facets and sun-crusts. The Feb 15 sun-crust/hard slab interface is down 30-50 cm. The Jan 30th surface hoar/sun crust layer is down 50-80 cm and variable in distribution and reactivity, producing hard sudden planar to no results in snowpack tests.
No new avalanches were reported today.
