Might be a good time to linger in your favorite coffee shop, chin-wagging about your early season exploits or future goals, instead of heading into the backcountry.
Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended until the storm passes through and the snowpack adjusts to the new snow load.
Watch out for sluffing in steep terrain especially above cliffs and around terrain traps. Small avalanches could be enough to trigger the storm slab problem, resulting in a large avalanche.
Surface hoar (10-20mm) has now been buried by ~40cm of snow (~60cm by Tuesday morning). Expect this layer to become reactive as additional snow falls and settles into a storm slab. This layer will be deeper in wind loaded areas.
On Sunday a natural cycle produced results from size 1.5-2.5 in MacDonald Gully's 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, MacD West Shoulder 1 & 2, Avalanche Crests 1, 2, 3, and on the West face of Cheops.
Avalanche activity will increase on Tuesday as the storm continues.
Artillery avalanche control is planned for Tuesday afternoon.
Over the last several days, 30-45cm of new snow covers surface hoar and a thin crust of steep solar aspects. This layer shows 'Sudden' results in snowpack tests and is easily triggered on convex rolls and in steep terrain.
There is ~110cm of snow at tree line, below average for this time of year. Many early-season hazards still exist at or just below the snow surface.
The base of the snowpack consists of weak, sugary facets in most areas.
A juicy tropical flow will drop ~30cm of snow by Tuesday morning with another 20-25cm during the day and another ~10-15cm by Wednesday morning. Expect winds to be 30-50km/h from the SW and the freezing level to rise up to 2400m early Tuesday morning as a warm air mass moves through.
