Beautiful days to be in the mountains with good snow conditions and a generally stable snowpack. Climbers should be wary of steep gullies and in particular avoid sun exposed gullies this week. Thurs and Fri will be hot in sheltered areas.
Weather Forecast
The warm air has arrived and it at the higher elevations today and also for Wednesday. Expect clear skies and continued warming through the week, particularly on the eastern side of the park. Valley bottom high's will reach +1 by Friday. Thursday and Friday will be the warmest days of the week. Don't be fooled by cold temps in the valleys.
Snowpack Summary
The surface snow is a mix of soft powder and wind effect in alpine areas and 30cm of unconsolidated facets below 2000m where the Dec 15 surface hoar is also very prominent buried 40cm down - not an issue right now with no slab above it but watch for this in the future. The deeper snowpack has a few crust/facet layers but is generally strong.
Avalanche Summary
Saw lots of loose snow activity in steep rocky alpine areas today from the sunshine, but otherwise only small windslabs and loose snow avalanches in the past 48 hours.
Problems
Loose Dry
Loose Dry avalanches are the release of dry unconsolidated snow and typically occur within layers of soft snow near the surface of the snowpack. These avalanches start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-dry avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs.
Wind Slabs
Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.