Start and finish early to minimize the avalanche hazard. Watch for solar effect on the slopes above you and for isolated wind slabs in the high alpine. Corn skiing is starting on solar aspects, with powder on due N aspects in the alpine.
Weather Forecast
Clear skies Monday night with a good refreeze overnight, but warming up Tuesday by mid-day with freezing levels to 2500m and increasing winds in the afternoon. Freezing levels stay a little higher Tuesday night and climb to 2500m again on Wednesday before spiking to 3400m on Thursday. No precipitation is expected during the next several days.
Snowpack Summary
Isolated wind slabs are present in the alpine. Crust or moist snow on all solar aspects depending on temperatures. Buried temperature crusts to 2000m on all aspects and to ridge top on solar slopes, including the Mar 15 crust down 40-70 cm in the alpine. Moist snow at lower elevations, with the entire snowpack becoming moist near valley bottom.
Avalanche Summary
A skier triggered size 2.5 persistent slab avalanche occurred on Mt Fairview late in the day Sunday. It failed 40-50 cm down on a buried sun crust. Lots of loose wet avalanche activity on steep solar aspects starting by 1000 in the morning. Several cornice failures triggering deeper slabs up to size 3 have been observed in the past 48 hrs.
Confidence
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.
Persistent Slabs
Persistent Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) in the middle to upper snowpack, when the bond to an underlying persistent weak layer breaks. Persistent layers include: surface hoar, depth hoar, near-surface facets, or faceted snow. Persistent weak layers can continue to produce avalanches for days, weeks or even months, making them especially dangerous and tricky. As additional snow and wind events build a thicker slab on top of the persistent weak layer, this avalanche problem may develop into a Deep Persistent Slab.
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.