Spring is in the air! Except its January! Treat it as spring... watch the temps, get to it early and get out early. A cooling trend is expected later in the week.
Weather Forecast
If it feels like spring, treat it like spring! Forecast is on a slow cooling trend. For Monday, expect more unseasonably warm temps and finally, some cooling further into the week.
Snowpack Summary
Below 2500ms have seen an infusion of rain and/or wet snow. Below treeline, especially in shallow areas, isothermic conditions are breaking down support in the snowpack. With a such a highly variable snowpack in the region, expect these conditions to overload lingering instabilities like the Dec 20 interface, down 15 to 40cm.
Avalanche Summary
Avi control in the Icefields produced numerous size 1's up to a size 2.5 slabs with impressive propagation over 200ms on a NE aspect at TL. Wet avalanches BTL are entraining the storm snow, building mass and moving fast from the rocks. Ice climbs are wet and becoming detached from the rock. Of note, the Pencil on Polar Circus broke off today.
Confidence
Freezing levels are uncertain on Monday
Problems
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.
Storm Slabs
Storm Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer (a slab) of new snow that breaks within new snow or on the old snow surface. Storm-slabs typically last between a few hours and few days (following snowfall). Storm-slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.
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.