Rising temperatures have professionals moving through avalanche terrain on tiptoe or simply avoiding it. Follow their lead by managing your exposure and avoiding consequential terrain.
Strong southwest winds have been redistributing loose surface snow into wind slabs in the lee of exposed terrain features. Wind slab releases could step down to a buried weak layer to create a much larger avalanche.
A 40 - 60 cm-deep weak layer of large facets produced avalanche activity during the recent storm. Forecast warming will promote natural activity and human triggering potential.
No new avalanches were reported on Tuesday.
Avalanche activity was reported to size 2 on Monday, from explosive triggers on east/southeast facing slopes. Avalanches occurred within the storm snow and on the buried weak layer from late January.
During the weekend's storm natural avalanche activity was observed to size 3.
Sustained warming may increase the reactivity of persistent slabs.
By Thursday, a new melt-freeze crust should glaze the surface on solar aspects and below about 2000 m. The depth of affected snow should increase over the coming days, although crust recovery may be weak. This process will affect around 30 cm of settling recent snow, which has been affected by strong southwest winds at treeline and above.
A persistent weak layer of surface hoar or facets from late January is buried 40 to 60 cm deep (see photo below). This layer is expected to remain reactive as forecast warming tests the snowpack. The mid and lower snowpack is generally well settled.
Wednesday Night
Partly cloudy. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop wind, increasing. Freezing level to 1200 m.
Thursday
Sunny. 20 to 30 km/h west ridgetop wind, up to 90 km/h in high alpine. Freezing levels rise to 2200 m, treeline temperature 2 °C.
Friday
Sunny. 20 to 30 km/h southwest ridgetop winds, easing. Freezing level to 2500 m. Treeline temperature 5 °C.
Saturday
Sunny. 20 to 35 km/h west ridgetop wind. Freezing level to 2800 m. Treeline temperature 6 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
