Weather Forecast
Warm temperatures, sunny skies and light winds are expected to continue for the forecast period. Clear overnight skies should allow for a good freeze by morning. Strong solar radiation and daytime temperatures above freezing in the alpine are forecast.
Avalanche Summary
Some sloughing from steep shaded aspects in the alpine to size 1.0. Also, moist surface snow releases up to size 1.0 on solar aspects.
Snowpack Summary
Crusts are developing due to melt/freeze conditions. Danger is elevated in the afternoon due to daytime warming, and lowered in the morning if there is a significant re-freeze overnight. There is a Four finger soft slab on north aspects that is 10-20 cm thick and is settling and bonding due to warm temperatures. The Feb 01 (120201) rain crust is down 10-40 cm up to about 2000 metres. The mid January crust is down between 50-100 cm, and the mid december crust is buried down up to 200 cm.
Problems
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.
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.