The danger levels are slowly improving, but cautious route selection is still required due to concerns with the Feb 10th layer. The bond at this interface is highly variable and needs to be investigated carefully before committing to a feature.
Weather Forecast
Cold air will invade the area again on Friday and through the weekend with temperatures dropping into the -20 and -30 range. Winds will be from the North on Friday up to 25km/h. Although tonight could bring very light flurries, no further precipitation is expected through the weekend.
Avalanche Summary
Very isolated solar-triggered loose wet avalanches up to size 1.0 from yesterday's heat were observed today. Very isolated loose dry in steep Alpine terrain have also been observed in the past 24 to 48hrs.
Snowpack Summary
Snowpack settling. Steep solar aspects now have a sun crust on the surface from the intense radiation yesterday. The Feb 10th layer down 35 to 70cm still produces moderate to hard results in compression tests. The midpack remains strong in areas near the divide, but it is weaker in areas further to the East. Isolated whumpfing and cracking continue to be observed.
Problems
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.