Confidence
Fair - Intensity of incoming weather is uncertain on Wednesday
Weather Forecast
Tuesday/Wednesday: The ridge of high pressure should begin to break down. Light/thin clouds are possible with temperatures slowly falling to more seasonal values. Expect light to moderate westerly winds. There is a slight chance of isolated flurries developing late on Wednesday.Thursday: A high pressure system builds promoting clear and dry conditions with light westerly winds and 1800m freezing levels.
Avalanche Summary
Solar aspects have been very active showing lots of natural loose wet avalanches and cornice releases up to size 2.5.
Snowpack Summary
Surface faceting and surface hoar growth ( up to 20 mm) has been prevalent on shady slopes at upper elevations, while the surface snow on sun-exposed slopes and at lower elevations has been subject to daily melt-freeze cycles. Cornices are large and weak.Surface hoar buried March 10th is down 100cm in most places. This layer seems to be bonding in most places and is a low probability - high consequence problem. Triggering may be possible with a very large load (cornice fall) or hitting the sweet spot in thin, variable snowpack areas.
Problems
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.
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.