Travel in the early morning hours and watch for sun-triggered wet loose avalanches.
An 80 cm thick midpack slab sits over a weaker, facetted base. On most slopes, recent sun crusts and a buried March 27 rain crust cap this slab, adding strength. We suspect it would take a large trigger, like a cornice or a human in a very steep, thin area, to get this going.
The recent storm snow may have cycled on Tuesday under strong afternoon solar input. However, with similar conditions expected Wednesday, wet loose avalanches remain possible.
Sunshine patrol reported observing a distant cornice failure on the Monarch in the Sunshine backcountry. They estimated it was not larger than a size 1.5, and that it was unlikely to have triggered a slab. Otherwise, no avalanches observed or reported on Tuesday.
There is up to 15cm of settled storm snow at treeline over top of well developed crusts on solar aspects (to ridgetop), and on crusts at all all aspects treeline and below. On north facing alpine slopes there is 20-30 cm of dry snow over firmer surfaces. The March 27 crust is 30-70 cm deep and extends to about 2500m. Below the settled mid-pack, there are still weak facets and depth hoar to the ground.
Clear skies and light winds bring stable conditions. Valley temperatures will reach near 5°C, while ridgetops remain seasonably cold around -8°C. A cool, quiet pattern for early starts and fast travel.
