Warm air and sunny skies will continue to influence the snowpack on Sunday.
Weather Forecast
SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly clear skies, freezing level dropping to 2000 m.SUNDAY: Mostly clear skies, light to moderate northwest winds, alpine temperature variable between -2 C and 1 C, freezing level dropping to 1500 m over the day.MONDAY: Mix of sun and clouds, light west winds, alpine temperature -1 C, freezing level 1200 m.TUESDAY: Mostly clear skies, light northwest winds, alpine temperature -1 C, freezing level 1200 m with inversion conditions possible.
Avalanche Summary
A few small wet loose avalanches were observed on southerly aspects on Friday.
Snowpack Summary
On the snow surface, you will likely find moist snow or a sun crust on southerly aspects and either a thin crust or dry snow on northerly aspects. Beneath this, around 40 to 60 cm of snow sits on a sun crust on south aspects and weak and feathery surface hoar in sheltered and shaded areas. The surface hoar is likely most pronounced at treeline elevations.The remainder of the snowpack is well-settled.
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.
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.