Daytime heating and timing are the key to success in the spring. Good trip planning means setting realistic objectives and alpine starts to get ahead of the heat before the snowpack destabilizes.
Weather Forecast
Cloudy with sunny periods. Light precipitation amounts. Alpine temperature at 4.0 C for Monday. Winds will be westerly light moderate. Freeze levels 2700 meters.
Avalanche Summary
Yesterday in the Rockies saw a mix of wet slabs, loose wet and cornice failures up to size 2.5 with daytime heating and direct solar radiation.
Snowpack Summary
Last night the temperatures dropped and some light precipitation fell as dry snow. The snowpack is in typical spring shape with conditions ranging from frozen crusts with light dusting over top to moist and wet surfaces by early to mid morning. The name of the game is to get up early, pay attention to temperatures and complete your objectives well before things fall apart.
Problems
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.
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.