Avalanche Danger ratings will climb to CONSIDERABLE or HIGH with solar radiation and daytime heating. This is a good time for bigger objectives, but plan your trip to avoid sun-exposed slopes and cornices later in the day.
Weather Forecast
Continued dry and warm conditions for the next several days. Winds are expected to be moderate from the NW and freezing levels will climb to near 2600m on Monday.
Avalanche Summary
Several solar triggered sluffs up to size 2.0 on solar aspects.
Snowpack Summary
Little change in the snowpack except that it continues to settle with the warm temperatures. Crusts continue to melt and re-freeze with the daily temperature swings on all solar aspects. True North aspects are the only place to find dry snow. Cornices remain large and susceptible to failure with intense radiation.
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.
Cornices
Cornice Fall is the release of an overhanging mass of snow that forms as the wind moves snow over a sharp terrain feature, such as a ridge, and deposits snow on the downwind (leeward) side. Cornices range in size from small wind drifts of soft snow to large overhangs of hard snow that are 30 feet (10 meters) or taller. They can break off the terrain suddenly and pull back onto the ridge top and catch people by surprise even on the flat ground above the slope. Even small cornices can have enough mass to be destructive and deadly. Cornice Fall can entrain loose surface snow or trigger slab avalanches.