Loose Wet
- Alpine
- Treeline
- Below treeline
- Likelihood
- Likely
- Size
- 2–3
We are expecting to see wet snow avalanches with warm temperatures, calm winds, and some sun expected today. With alternating layers of settled storm snow and loose melt forms in the upper 3' of the snowpack, it should not take much solar input before things start to fall apart. Wet loose avalanches will be the most likely activity that we will see, but we have also seen continued glide avalanche activity and will likely see more today. There is a smaller chance that we may see some wet slab avalanches, but these will probably need a longer period of warming before they really start to happen.
Expect to find increasing avalanche danger through the day, and be ready to avoid traveling on or below steep solar aspects as slopes heat up. This tends to happen on southeasterly slopes first, followed by southerlies and then southwesterlies. You may notice warning signs like rollerballs or pinwheels falling down solar aspects shortly before wet loose avalanches occur. Pay attention to deteriorating stability, and head to shaded aspects if you start to notice solar slopes becoming unstable. Glide avalanches are much more difficult to predict, but we saw continued glide activity yesterday and expect to see more today. You can manage that problem by avoiding spending time under open glide cracks.
Cornices are large and have already started to fall. This will only become more likely as things heat up today. Pay attention to this overhead hazard and limit spending time beneath them. If you're travelling along ridgelines, remember they often break back much further from the edge than we'd expect. A good example of this is the cornice above Warm-Up Bowl, which broke back all the way to the established snowmachine track along Seattle Ridge earlier this week.
