Despite the Sunday snow squalls, it is still spring at almost all elevations and aspects. Only high, north facing slopes are holding a dry, winter snowpack. If heading out, be sure to start and finish early. This includes all user groups. Even hikers and scramblers need to watch for changing snow conditions and plan on being away from snow before the afternoon.
Watch for sheltered northern areas where this layer may still exist. If triggered slabs could step down into the basal layers. Solar aspects could also see full depth releases during times of intense solar radiation and daytime heating.
The strong April sun and daytime heating will lead to loose wet avalanches, particularly in steep terrain.
Miner's Gully had a notable skier triggered sz2.5 wet slab today(Saturday). It was triggered late in the day and ran on the deep layers.
The snowpack is steadily transitioning to a Spring snowpack.
On north aspects in the Alpine, dry snow can still be found, and weaknesses in the lower snowpack could still be triggered, as these areas have not completely morphed into a Spring snowpack. Otherwise all other aspects and elevations consist of multiple layers of crusts and/or a well settled snowpack. These crusts will break down through the day depending on air temperatures and solar radiation. There are still many areas with basal facets/depth hoar that could awaken if the snowpack gets warm enough.
Timing is everything. As surface crusts break down during the day the avalanche hazard will begin to increase. Start early and finish early.
Sunday will be cloudy with light snow, or possibly rain at lower elevations. Temperatures will be cool off with overnight lows below zero and daytime high of +1.
Beyond that it looks like temperatures will stay chilly until early next week.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
