Warming temperatures and rain falling on snow is raising the avalanche danger to high.
Avoid all avalanche terrain.
New and sensitive cornices have formed at ridgetop Remain cautious and give these features a wide berth when travelling above or below them.
A weak crust with sugary facets has formed on steep sun-exposed slopes. This problem is healing but may persist on isolated south-facing slope. Avoid being on or beneath them for now.
Heavy rain and warm temperatures will rapidly destabilize the upper snowpack. Expect widespread wet loose avalanches, many capable of running to valley bottoms.
On Friday near ten mile pond, the field team reported a large avalanche (size 2) that had failed on a south aspect. We suspect this is older than 48 hours and is likely to have failed on the late February persistent slab avalanche problem interface.
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Warming temperatures and rainfall is expected to rapidly settle and unconsolidated 30 to 50 cm of snow that had fallen over the past week. In wind-exposed areas, it has been redistributed by strong west into lee features, forming new wind slabs.
50 to 80 cm deep, on steep southeast through southwest slopes, a crust with weak, sugary facets on top has been observed. If triggered, this layer could produce large to very large avalanches.
The mid and lower snowpack is well settled, with no layers of concern.
An area of low pressure tracking west of Newfoundland this weekend will bring warm, mild air and heavy rainfall. Up to 50 cm of recent new snow is expected to rapidly settle and lose strength, driving the avalanche danger rating to High.
Saturday Night
Cloudy. 25 to 35 mm of rain at treeline. 120 km/h southwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C.
Sunday
Cloudy. 20 to 30 mm of rain at treeline. 50 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 2 °C.
Monday
Mostly cloudy. 4 to 5 mm of rain at treeline. 30 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature -2 °C.
Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. 3 to 15 mm of precipitation as snow or rain at treeline. 80 km/h west ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C.
For additional weather information use this link
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
