Spring melt-freeze cycles are occurring at lower elevations, but in the alpine more winter like problems of new snow and the first kiss of sun exist. Keep your head up and expect danger to rise quickly with today's strong sun.
Weather Forecast
Today will be sunny with freezing levels rising to 2700m, alpine temps reaching +9'C, and light S winds. Wednesday will see a bit more cloud with freezing levels climbing to 3600m. Alpine temps will reach +14 with a low of +9. Thursday temps will reach +18. During this period there will be strong solar and little overnight freeze and recovery.
Snowpack Summary
Up to 30cm of snow fell over the last 5 days above 1900m. Dry snow can still be found on due north aspects above 2000m. At tree line, the top 50 cm of snow are moist with several crusts in the top meter of the snowpack.
Avalanche Summary
There have been a few natural moist loose avalanches to size 2 occurring daily. Today will be the sunniest day so far and more avalanche activity is expected. In addition, glide cracks are opening up on many slopes. 2 days ago a glide crack failed on the west side of the park, releasing 2 size 3 avalanches.
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.
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.
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.