Warm temperatures may create tricky conditions this weekend. Although the region is not included in the avalanche warning, deeper layers in the snowpack may become active. It's a good time to approach the mountains cautiously, with your eyes open, maybe even expect surprises.
The western side of the divide with 20-40 cm of new snow resulting in a widespread storm slab problem on steep slopes at all elevations. The eastern side of the divide will receive less snow and have a more localized problem on wind-affected slopes, especially near ridges
Thursday's storm is hitting favoured snowholes on the west hard (40 cm at Pine Pass Thursday morning and snowing heavily) while most places are showing 5 to 15cm so far.
THURSDAY Night: Snow tapers off by sunset, strong wind from the southwest, treeline temperatures between -5 and 0 C with freezing level falling from 1000 - 1500m down to valley bottom.
FRIDAY: The warming starts! Cloudy with isolated flurries bringing trace to 5cm of snow, strong wind from the west, treeline temperatures warm to around 0 C with freezing level quickly climbing to 1500 m in the afternoon.
SATURDAY: Warm weather continues with minimal overnight cooling at treeline elevations. Mix of sun and clouds, strong wind from the west, freezing level climbs to near 2000 m in the afternoon.
SUNDAY: Again little overnight cooling at higher elevations. Strong wind from the west, more cloud than sun, freezing level between 1500 and 2000m.
No new avalanche observations at the time of writing (Thursday afternoon) but I expect a storm slab avalanches are releasing where more than 30 cm of snow has fallen and wind slabs are reactive at treeline and alpine elevations where the wind is stronger than 25 km / hr.
This weekend unstable conditions may continue as warm temperatures weaken the snowpack and test upper and mid snowpack layers.
In the western parts of the region there's 20-40 cm, or possibly even more, new snow while the eastern slopes look like they're only getting 10 cm. If there's more than 25 cm of snow expect widespread storm slab problems. In all areas strong winds suggest widespread reactive wind slabs.
The lower snowpack is generally strong and bonded, with one or multiple crusts near the ground. We suspect the lower snowpack could be weak in shallow rocky wind-affected slopes east of the divide.
