Mount Glory

Last night’s storm delivered 3 to 5 inches of medium density snow at upper elevations. This was accompanied by westerly winds. This wind redistributed snow in exposed areas, scouring the usual places with corresponding wind loading on leeward slopes.

The morning started off with cold snow. I was able to initiate some dry loose sluffing in very steep northerly terrain, and this was failing within the new snow and less so on the crust.

There was a period of greenhouse effect combined with warming temperatures that led to snow on pretty much all aspects and elevations taking on some level of heat. This put a stop to dry snow moving on northerlies and led to some semi wet loose avalanches failing on the new snow interface on southerly slopes and at middle elevations. I would suspect this period of warming really locked up dry snow avalanches in most places below 10,000 feet. Above this elevation, I bet you could still trigger some wind slabs that have formed in the last 24 hours. Winds shifted from the west to southwest and were moving snow all day.

Coverage has not really improved, but riding quality did a little bit. Smooth surfaces made for good turning. Tomorrow, the snow may be a little funky with the warming today. If we get a cool, mostly clear night that could help dry out the snow a bit. Either way, conditions have improved.

Tomorrow, watch out for wind slabs on leeward slopes. These will likely be difficult to trigger, but could be problematic in consequential terrain. These slopes were obviously loaded and slabby feeling today. North, east, and south slopes were most suspect.

If the sun comes out, I would expect there to be some wet loose avalanches as well as the little bit of storm snow sheds.

I noted a couple of D1 natural wind slab avalanches on leeward east facing slopes. These likely happened during the little storms peak last night.