Natural avalanche activity is possible especially on sun exposed slopes in the afternoon. Cornices are soft and weak. Avoid travel under, on or anywhere near cornices.
Weather Forecast
Change in the weather pattern is on the way. Starting with cloudy skies, falling temperatures and freezing levels by the weekend. THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy. Freezing levels 2300 m and alpine temperatures near +5 degrees. Ridgetop winds light from the southeast.FRIDAY: Cloudy. Freezing levels falling to 1600 m and alpine temperatures near +1. Possible weak temperature inversion. Ridgetop winds light from the southeast.SATURDAY: Cloudy with light precipitation (5-10 mm) falling as rain at treeline and below treeline and snow in the alpine. Freezing levels 1500 m and alpine temperatures falling to -2. Ridgetop winds light from the South.
Avalanche Summary
On Tuesday, several natural and skier triggered loose wet avalanches up to size 2 were reported on all aspects and elevations from the region. Active cornice control with the use of explosives successfully dropped some chunks up to size 2 without pulling slabs on the slopes below. Natural avalanche activity may start to taper off with cooler temperatures this weekend.
Snowpack Summary
Snow surfaces are highly variable. On higher elevation north aspects (above 1700 m) you may find some dry, faceted snow. Some of this has been redistributed by southwesterly and northerly winds, potentially creating some unusual wind slabs. On solar aspects (East, South, West) moist snow surfaces exist creating melt-freeze conditions at higher elevations and mostly just melt conditions below treeline.The bigger questions are deeper in the snowpack. With little overnight re-freeze the warm temperatures will penetrate deeper and continue to destabilize the snowpack. Its hard to say how many hot days and warm nights it will it take to wake up the more deeply buried weak layers that we haven't thought about in a long time.
Problems
Loose Wet
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.