East Slopes North

Even lingering hazards from falling cornices or rocks shedding slabs of snow would be unlikely and isolated by now. It's worth staying aware of any sunny cliffs hanging onto snow or cornices above you, but the more likely hazards are the treacherous, icy surface conditions. 

It's been a few days since any reported avalanche activity in East North, and while large cornices or rock slabs could still shed snow or fall, these are quite unlikely by this point. Even given the very isolated chance of these avalanches, it's good practice not to stop for lunch under any of these overhead hazards. 

The long, clear nights have helped form a robust surface crust, despite overnight temperatures above freezing at upper elevations. Inversions have kept lower elevations much colder, with temperatures barely breaking 32°F on Saturday. We're stuck in this pattern for a few more days. 

Observers in the zone report that northern and shady slopes are staying frozen during the day, while sunny slopes are softening nicely into corn by the afternoon. In the western portion of the zone, the upper snowpack is saturated and refrozen down 1-1.5' from the recent rain. Further east, a 2-4" surface crust exists with dry snow below. You should expect icy travel on firm surfaces, particularly in the morning, so bring appropriate equipment to prevent long sliding falls.

With good visibility, all of the recently reported avalanches and cornice falls occurred on or around January 12th. The widespread wet avalanche cycle included many large avalanches, mostly slabs, some triggered by cornices, as well as some wet loose avalanches. We suspect that many of the slab avalanches occurred on existing storm/wind slab interfaces from the week prior.