Loose Wet
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Likely
- Size
- 1–2
The rain over the past few days has saturated the upper snowpack which makes natural and human triggered wet loose avalanches likely. These avalanches start small but can entrain a lot of wet snow on the surface and build momentum on steep terrain. Wet loose avalanches are especially concerning near terrain traps like gullies or cliffs that drastically increase the consequences of being caught in an avalanche. For those brave souls who venture into the mountains today, you can avoid this problem by sticking to lower angle terrain and being aware of runout zones from steep slopes above you.
Storm slab and Wind slab: If you make it above 2500' today you may encounter dry snow. The winds and steady snowfall over the past three days will likely have formed wind slabs along ridgelines and convex rolls. You can use test slopes to determine how sensitive the new snow is to human triggering by looking for shooting cracks or small avalanches. In areas that received over 12" of new snow, it is possible the new snow could cause unstable avalanche conditions even in wind sheltered areas.
(12/4/2024)
This might be a large wet loose or a small glide avalanche. Either way, the wet snow on steep rolls in the Tincan Trees was releasing naturally yesterday.
Photo: Daniel Krueger
