West Slopes Central

Your largest concern for the day is the breakable surface crust and the difficulties it may cause with travel. If steep, south-facing slopes soften there's a small chance you could trigger a small wet loose avalanche, or a natural one might occur.  

Challenging snow surfaces and irregular snow cover will likely be your largest concern on Tuesday. Prepare for less-than-ideal conditions if you plan to go out into the mountains. Full sun is forecasted, so steep, south-facing slopes will probably soften midday. Due to these surfaces having already melted and refrozen a couple of times, we don't expect much avalanche activity. Nevertheless, if you're sinking into wet, mushy snow deeper than your ankles it's probably best to shift to firmer ground.

Unexpectedly clear skies Sunday night resulted in frozen snow surfaces on Monday, which meant a lower avalanche hazard. Clear overnight skies again on Monday will aid us with continuing to freeze the surface layer, but freezing levels are forecasted to rise to 7000ft on Tuesday. As long as skies remain clear, east, north, and west aspects and lower-angle terrain will likely remain firm. If we end up with cloud cover, more aspects and lower elevations may soften more than expected. 

There are more unknowns in the upper elevation band. Near the top of the band, dry snow may have hung on through the storm. Given over 48 hours to stabilize and "warmer" temperatures, any weaknesses have probably healed. However, if you make it to upper elevations, be prepared to evaluate conditions for yourself, and in particular, identify any failure planes or weaknesses in wind-stiffened slabs of snow that would indicate avoiding steep, wind-loaded terrain. 

I traveled into the Baker backcountry in the West North zone on Monday. They received a little less water than the West Central zone, especially as you go further south in the West Central. This may mean conditions are a little different and there's more uncertainty in the West Central zone. A similarity, however, is that most elevations received snow and then rain before skies cleared and snow surfaces froze. This freezing is the contributing factor for giving us the low avalanche danger.

Enjoy the sun while we've got it! If you make it into the snow in the West Central zone, help us learn more about conditions specific to this zone by submitting an observation.