Warm temps & rising freezing levels are expected on Sunday & Monday which could increase the likelihood human triggered activity.
Beware of early season hazards at tree-line & below.
Heavy snowfall and strong-extreme SW winds built thick fresh slabs at high elevations Thursday. These are now buried by lower density snow, and may be harder to identify.
No new avalanches observed on Saturday.
However, an avalanche cycle triggered by wind and rain peaked on Thursday night. Several avalanches up to size 3.0 were observed in the highway corridor, some running well into the bare ground on lower elevation fans.
A small surface crust exists at tree-line.
Up to 45mm of rain from the last storm saturated the snowpack into the alpine - this mostly came as heavy snow above 2200m, but was accompanied by strong-extreme SW winds.
There may be a lingering layer of buried surface hoar in the alpine. This could be up to 80cm deep in lee areas.
A weakening system passes our area tonight, giving snow flurries into Saturday morning.
Tonight: Trace precip. Alpine Low -3°C. Freezing level (FZL) 1700m. Light Southwest ridge winds.
Sun: Isolated wet Flurries. Alpine High +2 °C. FZL 2500m. Light South wind.
Mon: Isolated flurries. Low -3 °C, High +1 °C. FZL 2200m. Light South wind.
Tues: Isolated flurries. Low -5 °C, High -2 °C. FZL 1800m. Light West wind.
