If the terrible travel conditions don't deter you, hopefully the elevated avalanche hazard will.
It's a good time to go biking, or sport climbing, or maybe just lounge in the sun.
With intense solar heating and very little overnight refreeze the surface snow is moist and weak. Loose wet avalanches are easily triggered in steep terrain and can gain surprising mass.
Several buried crusts exist in the upper snowpack, the deepest of which is the Mar 31 layer. As the upper snowpack loses strength and cohesion during this intense warm up these crusts may provide a failure plane for the wet snow.
The increasing warmth is penetrating deep into the snowpack. The potential for this early season basal weakness to wake up and produce very destructive avalanches increases with each day of warming.
Numerous loose snow and slab avalanches were observed on Friday and Saturday. Avalanches were up to size 3 and are starting to gouge further into the snowpack. A deeper slab avalanche on the SW side of Cheops is suspected to have failed on the Mar. 31st crust.
Avalanches may to continue to increase in size as the snowpack warms.
At upper elevations, warm temperatures and minimal overnight refreeze is weakening a moist upper snowpack. Several crusts buried in the top 50cm of the snowpack are beginning to break down as the snow warms. 20-40cm above the ground, the Nov 17 basal weakness can still be found in many areas.
Below treeline, the entire snowpack has become isothermal, and is losing strength as the day warms.
Warm, sunny weather through the weekend, with above seasonal temps and high freezing levels (FZL).
Tonight: Mostly clear, Alpine Low 9°C, FZL 3300m, Light SW ridgetop wind.
Sun: Mixed sun/cloud, High 14°C, FZL 3500m, Light SE wind.
Mon: Showers (10mm), Low 7°C, High 13°C, FZL 3700m.
Tues: Showers (9mm), Low 7°C, High 11°C, FZL 3600m.
