Travel is fast, but skiing is challenging! Wind affect, crusts, and treebombs galore...
Allow extra time for your egress.
This has become a low probability high consequence problem - triggering remains possible on treeline slopes that were not heavily skied, weren't beaten up by the wind and sun prior to the 29th, or haven't already had an avalanche on this layer.
Unsettled conditions for the foreseeable future means cloudy skies and not much snow...
Tonight: mainly cloudy, no precip. Alpine low -5*C, freezing level (fzl) 800m. Wind light-south.
Monday: isolated flurries, trace of snow. High -4*C, fzl 1500m. Wind light-W
Tuesday: isolated flurries, trace of snow. High -7*C, fzl 1100m. Wind light-W
Surface hoar to size 8mm has been observed growing on the old hard surfaces at treeline and below. Last week extreme South winds created widespread wind effect. Strong solar formed a crust into the alpine on solar aspects, and on all aspects below 1650m. The Jan 29th SH layer is buried 50-80cm, and is 5-15mm in size depending aspect and elevation.
One size 2.0 loose avalanche was observed from a steep south-facing path today, in the highway corridor.
There were a few size 2-2.5 avalanches triggered by warming in the highway corridor and in the backcountry on Thursday.
There were several reports of skier triggered avalanches last week, several confirmed to have failed on the Jan 29 Surface Hoar
