Unseasonably warm temperatures and intense sunshine will rapidly destabilize the upper snowpack. Avoid travel on or below solar-exposed slopes.
Weather Forecast
Welcome to the diurnal spring swing! Today will be sunny with an alpine high of 3*C, light winds with a freezing level rising to 2900m. The drastic temperature swings continue through the week as a strong upper ridge builds over the region, bringing clear skies and daylight freezing levels up to 3300m.
Snowpack Summary
Surface snow consists of sun crust on solar aspects and loose dry snow on polar aspects. A ~50cm soft slab sits on a variety of old surfaces: sun crust on solar aspects; hard slab in exposed areas; and facets in sheltered locations. The snowpack is generally facetted from Feb's cold streak and could lose strength quickly with the warming temps.
Avalanche Summary
A natural avalanche cycle yesterday spit out numerous avalanches from sz 1.0 - 3.0 from all aspects and elevations. A group of 4 skiers triggered a sz 2 ascending to Mt Green, E aspect, 2460m, while boot-packing through facets. All were caught, one skier was injured. Solar aspects were very active in the afternoon with the intense sun and heat.
Confidence
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.