The Winter Permit System is no longer in effect so get an early start! Freezing levels will rise this afternoon and stay high. When the surface crust breaks down the snowpack will become unstable.
Weather Forecast
Building high pressure over the region will give us sunny skies and start to drive temperatures up. Freezing level is forecast to go up to 3300m today which will give us an Alpine high of 9 deg. Winds will be S-10kph & there's no precip forecast in the next few days. Most models show freezing levels staying above 3700m until the middle of the week
Snowpack Summary
The melt-freeze crust on the surface is over 10cm thick, with the top ~5cm breaking down to "corn" by early afternoon. The crust will become weaker with forecast warm overnight temps. Below this crust is ~60cm of weak, moist snow. On steep, N'ly aspects above ~2300m the snow remains dry. At low elevations the snow is rapidly receding.
Avalanche Summary
There has been very little avalanche activity lately due to good overnight freezes of the snow pack. But with the forecast high freezing level avalanche activity will increase. Warm temps will quickly destabilize the snowpack! Expect glide-cracks to become more active, which are opening up on many slopes and can fail unpredictably.
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.
Wet Slabs
Wet Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) that is generally moist or wet when the flow of liquid water weakens the bond between the slab and the surface below (snow or ground). They often occur during prolonged warming events and/or rain-on-snow events. Wet Slabs can be very unpredictable and destructive.