West Slopes Central

On Wednesday, the sun and warm temperatures could soften crusts on southerly aspects. While unlikely, rollerballs or wet avalanches would be signs of more elevated avalanche danger on sunny slopes. Your main concern will be challenging travel due to shallow snow and crusts.

Wednesday will be another mild, sunny day with avalanches unlikely. Overnight low temperatures will be well below freezing, but daytime highs will be warmer than on Tuesday. While unlikely, upper elevations and areas near the West North Zone hold the only potential for anything resembling an avalanche. More snow accumulated in these areas since February 7th, and even as far back as the 28th. If traveling above 6,000ft, keep an eye out for wet avalanches on steep southerly aspects, and older wind-drifted snow on leeward sides of ridges.

On Tuesday, an NWAC forecaster in the Highway 2 corridor found an overall lack of snow. Dry ground extended up to 5,000ft where scoured or melted. On the northerly aspects, there was 4 feet of snow on the ground. They reported a few small roller balls and wet avalanches from upper elevations. This last series of storms brought a decent amount of precipitation to the West Central zone, around 1.2-1.5 inches. However, weather stations showed little to no change in snow depth. You can expect surface crusts on southwest through southeast aspects. On other aspects above 5,500ft, you may find enough recent snow (3" or more) for softer travel.  

Unfortunately, these storms didn’t improve travel conditions or coverage. Punchy snow, breakable crust, icy slopes, and numerous obstacles continue to make travel challenging and, in some cases, dangerous. Plan for extra time to deal with these “early season” conditions.