Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Regions
Glacier.
Solar warming continues today, the snowpack has not had cold enough temperatures to recover overnight this week
Weather Forecast
Warm again today, with an alpine high temp around 6*C, light winds, the intense sunshine continues with some cloudy periods possible. Freezing levels (FZL) hover around 3000m today. Saturday is forecast to begin cooling with some cloud and freezing levels dropping to 1800m by Sunday and light snow.
Snowpack Summary
A ~40cm slab exists at alpine and tree-line elevations over facets and suncrust. Above freezing temperatures all week at and above 2000m have resulted in poor overnight recovery of the snow surface. Isothermal conditions below treeline.
Avalanche Summary
A natural spring avalanche cycle starting Sunday has continued through the week. Control with artillery produced numerous avalanches size 2.5 to 3.0. Large natural avalanches are still occurring in the heat of the day including a size 3.5 from Lone Pine yesterday. A group of 4 skiers triggered a sz 2 ascending to Mt Green, on Sunday.
Confidence
The weather pattern is stable on Friday
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.