East Slopes Central

Avalanche conditions are generally safe. Winter travel may be challenging due to shallow snow cover, breakable crusts, and wet snow. 

Watch out for shallowly buried objects under your feet or sled at lower elevations. Snow cover is shallow and there are many exposed obstacles to hit. Aside from challenging travel conditions, there's some uncertainty in snowpack conditions at the highest elevations (above 6,500ft) and in the northernmost part of the zone. If you travel in these areas, you may be able to find dry surface snow or older wind-drifted slabs. If you see blowing snow or signs of recent drifting, use small, inconsequential slopes to assess how easily the snow will slide. If you manage to find wind affected snow, any slabs should be more difficult to trigger by Friday.

In the rest of the terrain, you can expect crusty and variable snow surfaces. On Saturday into Sunday, an impressive storm brought 8-20 inches of snow that ended in rain. The snowpack has been slowly freezing, though warm temperatures haven't helped. Observers reported a breakable crust extending to upper elevations. The rainline was likely around 6,000-6,500ft during the storm, though we're not certain. Widespread surface hoar has been reported on the surface in other zones, and we suspect it here as well.

Looking further ahead, we anticipate a major warm up along with some clearing on Saturday. This may be enough for heightened avalanche danger due to wet avalanches. Keep an eye on the latest avalanche and weather forecasts to see how they change.

You can contribute to the forecast by letting us know what you see. Submit a public observation here.