Alpine temperatures are sky rocketing! Dial back your terrain choices when the snow gets moist or mushy and avoid cliffs, gullies, and steep slopes with trees.
Confidence
High - The weather pattern is stable
Weather Forecast
THURSDAY: Sunny, light wind, freezing level around 3200 m.FRIDAY: Sunny, light wind, freezing level around 3000 m.SATURDAY: Increasing cloud, moderate to strong southwest wind, freezing level around 2500 m.
Avalanche Summary
On Tuesday, a few small loose avalanches were reported on steep south-facing slopes, showing the initial effects of the warm weather. More wet loose activity can be expected thanks to the sustained warming this week.
Snowpack Summary
Dramatic warming will cause widespread melting of the surface snow, especially on south-facing slopes. Crusts may form overnight, but will melt quickly in the mornings. The 40-60 cm of storm snow that fell last week is rapidly settling and bonding well to the late November rain crusts. Up high, shifting winds (first from the south, and more recently from the north) have blown snow around in exposed areas creating drifts and scoured areas.
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.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind 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.