Pay attention if the sun comes out in the alpine on Saturday. New snow is especially sensitive to solar triggering.
Recent snow and southwesterly winds have formed reactive wind slabs. Expect possible natural activity and likely human triggering in the alpine. If the sun comes out, the new snow will be especially sensitive to triggering.
Friday night: 5-10 cm new snow. Moderate west to southwest winds. Freezing level around 1000 m.
Saturday: Cloudy with sunny breaks. A trace of new snow. Light west to southwest winds. Freezing level around 1400 m.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. A trace of new snow. Light west to southwest winds. Freezing level around 1400 m.
Monday: Mostly cloudy. A trace of new snow. Moderate west to southwest winds. Freezing level around 1400 m.
Over the last 3 days there have been numerous reports of natural storm slab activity up to size 2.5 on northeast aspects in the alpine. Explosive control work has been up to size 2, as well as reports of skier triggered size 1s.
New snow and moderate southwest winds have formed wind slabs in lee features in the alpine. A temperature crust formed Friday at least as high as 1600 m.
The stout upper snowpack continues to settle in mild temperatures. Several crust layers exist in the mid snowpack as a result of previous warming and rain events. These have not been identified as bed surfaces or failure planes in recent avalanche activity.
The bottom 10-20 cm of the snowpack consists of faceted snow and decomposing crusts. Although inherently weak, this basal layer has not been an active avalanche problem in our region since 2019.
