Get an early start to your day to take advantage of the frozen snowpack in the morning. It rapidly breaks down and becomes unstable with daytime warming, sunshine, or rain.
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with sunny periods today, with clearing tonight and freezing levels dropping to valley-bottom. Flurries are expected on Saturday, bringing up to 10cm to the alpine elevations, and freezing levels may rise to 1800m. Flurries will continue on Sunday, with 5cm in the alpine, freezing levels around 1600m, and winds moderate from the west.
Snowpack Summary
High elevation N aspects still hold a winter snowpack with surface windslab that may be sensitive to human triggering given the right location. On solar aspects expect temp crusts and sun crusts in morning and moist surface as the day warms. Field trip yesterday showed no recovery in surface crusts due to rain overnight.
Avalanche Summary
A size 3.5 natural glide crack avalanche adjacent to the highway released during Thursday morning. No other new activity has been observed.
Problems
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.
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.
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.