Difficult travel conditions exist with very little snow remaining below 1900m and crusts to Treeline. Winter is hanging on in the alpine however and slab formation will continue with small amounts of incoming snow and dropping temperatures this week.
Weather Forecast
Heating that peaked Monday will persist until midday Tuesday when freezing levels will drop to below treeline for the rest of the period. Expect isolated convective snow flurries for the period dropping trace ammounts. Winds will remain west and moderate through Wednesday when the will diminish to light for Thursday.
Snowpack Summary
Treeline and below there is wet snowpack capped by a thin crust on all aspects. Below 1900m very little snow remains. In the Alpine winter is hanging on although a rain crust now exists to about 2400m. Recent snowfall and West winds have formed fresh windslabs and cornices are large.
Avalanche Summary
Warming and rain to 2400m last week created widespread loose wet avalanches to ridgetops on solar slopes and to Treeline on shaded slopes. Heating and strong west contributed to several cornice failures, a few of which triggered significant slabs to size 2.5 on North facing slopes in the alpine.
Confidence
Due to the number of field observations
Problems
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.
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.
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.