Start and finish early to enjoy the good travel and lower hazard. Monday should stay cooler, but watch for wet loose avalanches later in the day with daytime warming and solar inputs.
Moderate winds may form small windslabs in steep alpine terrain, and continue to use caution in steep northerly thin snowpack terrain in the alpine.
The recent 15-25 cm has been distributed into some deeper and denser pockets by light variable winds. Ridgetop winds are forecast to increase into the moderate range from the SW on Monday, so we may see further slab development in high elevation lee areas.
The Feb 3 layer is down 60-120 cm. In shallow snowpack areas on northerly alpine aspects, this layer may still be sensitive to skiers, with remote triggering observed in a couple of instances last week. All recent avalanches that initiated on this Feb 3 layer stepped down to the basal facets/ground.
Solar inputs and daytime warming will result in moist surface snow on steep solar aspects and at lower elevations. If things warm up enough we may see wet loose avalanches in the afternoon. Remember that even a short burst of sun can develop moist snow very quickly on steep slopes.
No new avalanches were observed or reported on Sunday.
On Friday and Saturday multiple solar triggered loose wet avalanches up to size 1.5 were reported in steep solar terrain as the most recent storm snow heated up.
It has been a week since the last skier triggered avalanches on the Feb 3rd persistent weak layer occured. These involved a skier remote in Purple Bowl and a skier accidental at the Cathedral Glades.
New surface crusts on all solar aspects and up to 2500 m on north aspects. On high north aspects 15-20 cm of recent storm snow remains dry with some wind effect near ridgecrests.
The February 3 persistent weak layer remains a concern for human triggering in shallow snowpack areas on northerly alpine aspects where no crusts are found in the upper snowpack and the midpack remains thin and weak.
Monday: Moist southwest flow aloft will generate cloudy skies and flurries at higher elevations. Southwest ridgetop winds will range from 35 to 50 km/h.
Precipitation will be mainly on the windward side of the Rockies but some snow will drift across to the eastern slopes through the afternoon. Freezing levels will be between 1800-2000 m.
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