Travel remains easy, but it is still prudent to carefully evaluate more committing terrain. Clouds could move into the region on Sunday with some snow finally in the forecast for Monday.
Confidence
Good - Timing or intensity of solar radiation is uncertain on Sunday
Weather Forecast
Increasingly more cloud cover over the next couple of days with chance of light precip for Monday.
Avalanche Summary
No new natural avalanche activity was observed over the past 48hrs.
Snowpack Summary
Melt freeze crust on steep solar aspects up to 2900m. This crust is up to 3cm thick in some areas. Widespread SH growth in all areas except steep solar. On Friday, SH up to 10mm big was found standing up tall and not at all affected by winds at 2500m on a col on the W side of Heros knob. This layer will be a large concern when it gets buried by snowfalls later this week.
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.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.