After a wild week of weather things have calmed down and the snowpack has had a chance to settle. Some large natural avalanches were reported on Douglas early in the week but none have been observed since. With warmer temps and heavy amounts of rain most of the snowpack has been saturated and led to a more stable snowpack. There could be some pockets of preserved dry snow and persistent weak layers at the very highest elevations of Douglas meaning skier triggered avalanches are possible near mountain tops and appropriate decision making should be used.
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With warm temperatures overnight and expected throughout the day we could see some wet loose activity today. These type of avalanches typically start at a point, fan out and can entrain more heavier denser snow making even small avalanches dangerous.
Periods of heavy rain and warm temperatures this week have drastically changed our snow pack. At lower and middle elevations, liquid water has passed through the entire snow pack leaving mostly isothermal melt forms behind. At upper elevations there has been periods of rain to ridge line however, temps have stayed cool enough at times to suspend much of that water higher in the snow pack as melt freeze crusts and wet grains. This means that dry snow and persistent weak layers may be surviving deep in the snow pack at our highest elevations on Douglas however at this time they will likely be very stubborn to triggers. Today mild temps at middle and upper elevations may soften surface layers enough to make small wet loose avalanches possible especially by human triggers. If snow feels heavy and saturated under foot, avoid gulleys and terrain traps that can allow large amounts of snow to build up.
