Precipitation is forecast to continue into Sunday. As a result avalanche danger will remain at HIGH.
Snow at upper elevations keeps coming. Storm slabs continue to build through Saturday night. Expect to see wet snow avalanches at lower elevations due to rain below 1500m.
Snow and/or rain has continued accumulate over the past 3 days and is likely overloading deeply buried weak layers.
Saturday: Snow, accumulation 15-30 cm. Alpine temperature -2 C. Moderate to strong southwest wind. Freezing level 1600 m.
Sunday: Flurries, accumulation 10-15 cm. Alpine temperature -4 C. Moderate southwest wind. Freezing level 1500m.
Monday: Scattered flurries. Alpine temperature -4 C. Moderate west wind. Freezing level 500 m.
Tuesday: Mainly cloudy. Alpine temperature -4 C. Moderate west wind. Freezing level 500 m.
Snow accumulation over the past 3 days has overloaded deeply buried weak layers. As a result avalanches have the potential to reach the end of their runouts. Expect storm slabs to remain touchy on Sunday as the new snow continues to accumulate at upper elevations. On Friday and Saturday there were reports of widespread avalanche activity in the recent storm snow. Explosives controlled avalanches size 3 persistent slab avalanches were running on weak layers 150 cm deep at treeline on Saturday.
Snowfall at upper elevations has covered a previously variable and wind-affected surface and is expected to continue to develop touchy storm slabs. Expect the surface snow at lower elevations to be moist or wet due to rain.
Crust layers from November and October can be found 40-100 cm below the surface. These layers produced large avalanches with explosive triggers around Dec 13-14, but since then have appeared to gain strength, but may become overloaded with all the recent snow.
Snowpack depths range between 60-130 cm at higher elevations and taper rapidly below treeline.
