New overnight snow and expected solar input will guarantee loose moist avalanches on steep solar aspects. Hazard will increase with daytime warming and strong springtime sun.
Weather Forecast
A mix of sun and cloud today. Scattered light flurries are expected as an unsettled system moves through the region. Freezing levels up to 1700m with an alpine high of -1. Winds will be light from the SW. A ridge of high pressure moves in this evening, ushering in a stable pattern of clear skies with a dramatic daytime warming trend.
Snowpack Summary
5cm of new snow sits over a 1cm melt freeze crust at 1330m. At Tree line, moist snow exists in the top 50cm below supportive melt freeze crust. Light overnight winds. Several crusts in the top meter of the snowpack provide potential failure layers and sliding surfaces. Glide crack slopes continue to open up and release with spring conditions.
Avalanche Summary
Little avalanche activity yesterday. Expect natural and skier triggered loose moist avalanches on solar aspects when the sun does come out today. Multiple buried crusts can provide a propagation surface for some loose snow avalanches, causing larger than expected slides.
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.