Wind slab distribution is variable.
Pay attention to changing conditions as you move through different aspects and elevation bands.
New snow and gusty winds will load leeward slopes in wind-exposed terrain. Expect this problem to be most reactive in ridge top features. If triggered, these avalanches may travel farther and faster than expected on a buried crust.
No new avalanche observations.
Natural avalanches up to size 2.5 through the highway corridor on Tuesday-Thursday.
A widespread, natural avalanche cycle occurred up to size 4.0 on Mar 19-20 during the atmospheric river. Check out pics from the recent mega avalanche cycle in the MIN Reports. It shows some of the huge debris piles that are making travel challenging.
15-50 cm of recent storm snow has been redistributed by SW winds creating wind slabs in exposed terrain. Expect challenging travel below treeline with frozen tree bombs and huge avalanche debris from last week's super storm.
Below the storm snow, a strong crust exists up into treeline. Another crust from early March is down 70-150 cm.
The Jan 26 surface hoar layer is now buried 150-210 cm deep. This layer is not a concern for human triggering with bridging crusts above.
Convective flurries.
Tonight Isolated flurries. trace precipitation. Alpine low -11°C. Winds SW 20 gusting 45km/h. Freezing level (FZL) 500m.
Sun Flurries 7cm. High -7°C. Wind SW 15 gusting 40km/h. FZL 800m
Mon Sunny periods with isolated flurries. Trace precipitation. High -12°C. Wind W 15-30km/h. FZL 700m.
Tues Sunny periods with isolated flurries. Trace precipitation. High -7°C. Wind S 10-25. FZL 900m.
