Loose Wet
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Likely
- Size
- 3
After two days of strong sunshine and warm temperatures, I think we have gone through much of the wet avalanche cycle that shed the snowfall from earlier this week. But the (1) lack of an overnight refreeze with overnight "lows" +4 to +12 warmer than 24 hours earlier and (2) temperatures that are forecasted to be much warmer than Thursday maintain the risk of wet avalanches today. The past two days wet avalanche activity began by late morning, but I am expecting things to become active much earlier today, including both wet sluffing and possibly much larger wet slabs. The only terrain that may be spared from wet avalanche activity today are northerly aspects above about 9,000'.
Timing is everything! It's time to move off of the snow once the surface becomes soft, wet, and unsupportable.
Also, avoid being under any slope with a large glide crack. These are large cracks where the snow rest on a smooth ground surface and begins creeping/sliding downhill. At seemingly random times, these slopes can produce glide avalanches. Look for these large obvious cracks and just avoid hanging out beneath them.
