Gunnison

Clear skies overnight and a reasonable freeze create a great day for mountain travel.  To avoid triggering a loose avalanche, look out for a wet, unsupportive snowpack as the day warms.  Limit your time underneath cornices and give a wide berth above.  An early start and end to your day will help reduce the threat of wet avalanche problems.  You can find dry snow on high elevation north slopes, so steer around any hard-feeling drifts below leeward terrain features, particularly if you travel in extreme terrain.   

Clear skies helped create a reasonable freeze overnight and should allow for a nice window of quality travel in the mountains.  As we move deeper into spring, the snowpack becomes more resilient to the warm weather, and avalanche problems become more isolated across the landscape.  A few avalanche problems could present themselves today due to the warming conditions.

Wet Loose avalanches are the most probable issue you will encounter.  Check out this recent observation, highlighting a few recent loose avalanches.  Most of the recent natural activity occurred on northerly slopes above 11,000 feet, where last week's snow became wet and shed from steep slopes.  Monitor the snow surface during your travels, and if you encounter a punchy snowpack that's unsupportive or find a few inches of wet snow on northerly aspects, you could trigger a loose avalanche.  

Two unlikely, but not impossible, hazards come from Cornice fall and Wet Slabs.  Sunshine and warm temperatures will weaken cornices during the heat of the day, possibly causing a rogue cornice fall.  A trundling cornice is problematic on its own, but these could release a large slab avalanche like this one on Mount Baldy from last week.  Minimize your time below, and give a wide berth while crossing above cornices to reduce your risk.  Although Wet Slab avalanches are unlikely, meltwater is draining through the snowpack on northerly-facing slopes at mid- to upper elevations.  This process keeps the unlikely threat alive.  This observation on Friday from Washington Gulch highlights the significant amount of meltwater moving through the snowpack on northerly slopes near treeline.  You can reduce the risk of this unlikely problem by traveling earlier in the day and avoiding steep north slopes at upper elevations with a saturated snowpack.

Lastly, you could encounter shallow, dry slabs that formed during last week's storm and wind.  This observation from Gothic Mountain highlights the dry snow, but no drifts were encountered.  This small problem may exist in a limited area of terrain at the highest elevations on northerly slopes, well above the treeline.  Look for stiff pockets of snow in leeward locations and steer around them to reduce your risk.  These avalanches would be small, but could pose a threat in extreme terrain.

This is the final forecast of the season.  We will post a General Spring Travel Advice by Monday morning.  We will update the observation page daily, so please continue submitting observations and use the page to access pertinent information as conditions change throughout the late spring.  Thank you all for the support, and we look forward to next year.