While the storm is finally over, remain cautious, especially with your approach to terrain choices in the Alpine Monday.
Weather Forecast
The Pineapple Express is finally done, unfortunately it looks like warm temperatures are here to stay. Monday: Freezing Level around 1600m, Strong SW winds in the alpine, light variable winds at lower elevations, 2 to 6mm of precipitation. On Tuesday alpine winds should remain moderate to strong, but they will likely switch to the W/NW. On Wednesday ridgetop winds are expected to increase to strong SW as freezing levels climb throughout the day, looks like they could go as high as 2200m. No precipitation expected.
Avalanche Summary
At the height of the storm in the northern portion of the region avalanches ran to size 3 on the February 1st Crust. Wet avalanches below 1950m were also observed. In the southern portion of the region several small glide avalanche releases were observed on rock slabs below treeline.
Snowpack Summary
The wet warm storm has produced 50 to as much as 80cm of snow above 2200m in the north of the region. The snow is wet below 2000m and saturated below treeline. Moderate to strong winds out of the SW through SE have likely formed deep slabs at upper elevations. In the Southern portion of the region it sounds like a bit of cooling produced 15 cm of new snow Friday night, previously rain had fallen to ridgetop. All the new snow rests on the early February rain crust. We have not received any reports of avalanches failing below this stout crust. Warm temps this week should help all the new storm snow to settle and stabilize.
Problems
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.
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.