It is uncertain how well the snowpack will recover from the recent rain and high elevation temperatures.
Make conservative decisions and avoid overhead hazards while the snowpack heals.
A persistent weak layer (PWL), buried March 5th, is down 60-120cm. Depending on aspect and elevation, this layer may be suncrust, facets &/or surface hoar. New avalanches may step down to this layer resulting in large avalanches.
It is uncertain how well the snowpack will recover from the recent warming & rain. If there is a poor freeze overnight, expect wet loose avalanches to still be of concern.
A rain event into the alpine caused a widespread natural avalanche cycle on Wed. Numerous large wet avalanches ran down into the valley bottom.
Neighboring regions have reported serious incidents and very large avalanches.
30mm of rain/wet snow has destabilized the upper snowpack. How well the wet snow will recover with a overnight freeze is somewhat uncertain.
The March 5 PWL consists of a crust &/or surface hoar and is down 60-120cm. There is concern that wet avalanches will step down to this PWL and may entrain more snow at lower elevations.
Additional PWL's from Jan/Feb are now buried 140-190cm deep.
A general cooling trend with scattered flurries through to Sunday.
Tonight: Trace precip. Alpine low -3°C. West wind 20km/hr. Freezing Level (FZL) 1600m
Fri: Cloudy w/ scattered flurries. 5cm. Alpine high -2°C. South wind 10-35km/hr. FZL 1900m
Sat: 6cm. Alpine High -3°C. West wind 15-25km/hr. FZL 1800m
Sun: Mainly Cloudy. Trace precip. Alpine high of -1°C. Wind NE 10km/hr. FZL 1900m
