Central Cascades

Mixed precipitation on Monday will do little to change the overall avalanche danger.  We will continue to have Low Avalanche hazard.  As always, pockets of instability are possible so continue to use safe travel techniques and evaluate surface snow.

Oh the crusts!  Rain and melt-freeze crusts dominate our snow surfaces throughout the region.  They have varied in supportability and smoothness based on aspect and elevation.  I was touring high in the sisters today and south faces were starting to just soften at midday, despite temperatures well above freezing.

Incoming stormy weather is unlikely to provide the significant refresh that we need.  Light precipitation totals mean that a Wind Slab problem up high is unlikely.  Similarly, I don't think we'll encounter much in the way of wet problems below treeline.  For one, there just isn't that much snow; secondly our snowpack has already seen a lot of rain from last weekend.

Right now our snow depth (we like to say "height of snow", or Hs) varies dramatically by elevation.  There is no snow in our lower elevation riding terrain.  Our higher trailheads like Dutchman Snow Park have about 45 cm.  Near treeline there is about 90 cm., with more at alpine elevations.  Cold overnight temperatures last week did produce some faceting (weak layer formation) just below and sometimes above the surface crust (predominently near treeline and just below treeline), but these layers aren't dangerous when there's no slab overlaying them, and it's anyone's guess if they'll survive til our next big snowfall.