If solar input is stronger than expected, recognize that the danger elevation will rise proportionally.
Weather Forecast
Temps will be slightly cooler tomorrow. Freezing levels will be around 2400m. There will also be more cloud tomorrow, which should help with the moist snow situation. Winds will continue to be light. No precip is expected.
Avalanche Summary
Control runs today saw small slabs in the alpine that eventually entrained warm snow as they crept downhill. There was also a high alpine windslab avalanche noted in the Goat range. It was a sz2, E asp, 2800m start elevation.
Snowpack Summary
Another day of warm temps and strong solar input have helped settle the snowpack as a whole. Any steep, solar slope had moist snow by early afternoon and by mid afternoon some loose wet activity was noted. The polar aspects haven't felt the warm temps as much. The snow remains cold, and the layering structure that we're used to is still intact. At alpine & treeline elevations, the windslabs still haven't had enough heat to bond together.
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.
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.
Deep Persistent Slabs
Deep Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a thick cohesive layer of hard snow (a slab), when the bond breaks between the slab and an underlying persistent weak layer deep in the snowpack. The most common persistent weak layers involved in deep, persistent slabs are depth hoar or facets surrounding a deeply buried crust. Deep Persistent Slabs are typically hard to trigger, are very destructive and dangerous due to the large mass of snow involved, and can persist for months once developed. They are often triggered from areas where the snow is shallow and weak, and are particularly difficult to forecast for and manage.