Warm and SunnyAn early start, caution, and avoidance during the heat of the day is essential for safe travel in avalanche terrain right now.
Weather Forecast
Glorious diurnal swings in temperatures making it positively spring like in the mountains this weekend. For Sunday, freezing levels cresting to 2100m with sun and little wind. More of the same leading into the week with strong solar effect and continued, rising freezing levels up to 3000m by mid week.
Snowpack Summary
Melt freeze, spring-like cycle beginning in ernest TL and below. Moist surface snow on steep, solar aspects. Less so in the Alpine where freezing levels (up to 2100m) and cooling winds are keeping the surface dry. Facetting has weakened the upr. snowpack in isolated, shaded areas through the forecast region. Wind effect in open areas in ALP and TL.
Confidence
The weather pattern is stable
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.