Strong sun may rapidly increase avalanche danger on steep solar slopes.
Pay attention to changing conditions and don't let good visibility lure you into dangerous terrain.
New snow accompanied by southeast switching to northwest wind has created slabs on a variety of aspects in wind-loaded terrain.
Strong sun on Saturday will increase the reactivity of storm slabs on steep, sun-affected slopes.
On Wednesday, natural (some cornice-triggered) and skier-triggered wind slabs were observed from alpine and treeline terrain (size 1). Notably, some slabs had surprisingly wide propagation in lower-angled terrain due to a weak layer of surface hoar they were failing on. (more here).
Keep your guard up on Saturday. Storm slabs are expected to remain reactive to triggering. Natural activity can be expected on steep south-facing terrain during periods of strong sun.
10 to 30 cm of new snow arrived Friday night with strong southeast switching to northwest wind creating wind-affected surfaces and wind slabs on a variety of aspects in exposed terrain.
This new snow overlies a sun crust on steep south-facing slopes, faceted snow or large surface hoar in sheltered areas, and wind-affected surfaces in exposed areas.
A second crust is buried 60 to 100 cm deep and may have a layer of surface hoar sitting above it. Recent tests show this layer as unreactive.
The remainder of the mid and lower snowpack is well-settled.
Snow depths at treeline are roughly 100 to 150 cm.
Friday Night
A mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -5 °C.
Saturday
A mix of sun and cloud. 10 to 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -4 °C.
Sunday
Mostly sunny with valley cloud. 10 to 30 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -7 °C.
Monday
Increasing cloud cover. 20 to 40 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature rising to 0 °C. Freezing level rises to 2500 m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
