A big change in weather is on its way!
Heavy snow will add load to an upper snowpack with known weaknesses.
Choose only conservative terrain with no overhead hazard while the snowpack adjusts.
Recent snow and strong southwest winds have formed wind slabs that will be more reactive with incoming precipitation and continued strong winds. Open terrain above 1600 m will be likely trigger areas.
Persistent slabs remain possible to human trigger at treeline and above, especially in areas without a supportive crust above the weak layer. Warm temperatures and precipitation will make this problem more sensitive.
On Monday, numerous size 1 to 1.5 wind slab avalanches were reported near Golden.
On Sunday, A size 2.5 naturally triggered slab avalanche was reported on Sunday in the backcountry near Gorman. See the full MIN here
Up to 10 cm of new snow above 1600 m will add to recent snow bringing incremental accumulation to roughly 20 cm over a sun crust on solar facing terrain and wind effect elsewhere.
Below the recent snow is a 1 to 10 cm thick crust on all aspects. The thickness of the crust depends on elevation.
At upper elevations, where the crust is thinner or not present, it may still be possible to trigger persistent slabs on multiple buried weak layers of surface hoar and/or crusts in the top 120 cm of the snowpack.
In shallow snowpack areas, depth hoar (large facets) can be found near the bottom of the snowpack.
Monday Night
Mostly cloudy. 1 to 5 cm of snow. 80 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -3 °C.
Tuesday
Cloudy. 2 to 3 cm of snow. 60 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.
Wednesday
Mostly cloudy. 3 to 15 mm rain at treeline. 60 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C.
Thursday
Mostly cloudy. 3 to 10 mm of rain at treeline. 70 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 2 °C.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
