Assess conditions as you travel - snow may hide reactive slabs or, more likely, early-season hazards.
Strong to extreme winds have polished open terrain and left stubborn wind slabs. Be mindful that winds are shifting more northerly, this could change where wind slabs lurk.
On Sunday, explosives triggered size 1-2 storm slabs and a size 1.5 natural storm slab avalanche was reported.
10-30 cm snow accumulated by Sunday morning at upper elevations, and strong southwest winds quickly impacted any loose snow in open and exposed terrain.
Recent snow covered a crust at upper elevations and to moist snow lower down. Where the snowpack is growing, a weak drought layer is down 20-50 cm. This layer consists of hard, wind-affected snow in the alpine, surface hoar or facetted snow in sheltered areas, and a crust on solar aspects and on all aspects below 2200 m. Below this layer, several other facet-crust interfaces exist in the snowpack.
Terrain features poke through a building snowpack that ranges from 80-150 cm in the alpine and 50-70 cm at treeline. Below treeline is below the threshold for avalanches.
Sunday night
Cloudy with isolated flurries, trace accumulation and clearing overnight. Light to moderate north wind, treeline low temperatures -20 C, and freezing level valley bottom.
Monday
Sunny and cold. Light to moderate northeast wind, treeline high temperatures -9 C.
TuesdayCold with a mix of sun and cloud and isolated flurries. Light northeast wind, treeline temperature -12 C.
WednesdayIncoming precipitation and wind, 20-30 mm, strong southwest wind, treeline temperatures rising to -4 C, freezing level rising above valley bottom.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
