Rising freezing levels will be the trend for the next two days. Minimize your exposure on large slopes by the late morning on sun effected slopes. Cornice hazard will also increase, give them a wide berth on ridgetops and avoid the overhead exposure.
Weather Forecast
The Interior is under the influence of a high pressure ridge keeping skies mainly sunny today over our region. Freezing levels expected to reach 2250m today and rising to ~2700m tomorrow. A weak disturbance may make it here on Tuesday delivering light precipitation and cooling temperatures.
Snowpack Summary
Overnight cold temperatures left a 15cm crust at 1310m. At treeline and above 5- 0cm of recent snow overlies a crust on all aspects. The April 10 layer, observed to be breaking down as a wet layer is down 30-60cm. The snowpack is moist on all aspects and below the surface crust. Dry snow can only be found on north aspects above ~2100m.
Avalanche Summary
No observed activity yesterday.
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.