Bollettino valanghe

The lower snowpack has gained a lot of strength and old wind slabs in upper elevations have shown signs of stabilizing. New snow and Southwest wind later today will start forming small, shallow wind slabs in leeward terrain...Continue using safe travel protocols like 1 person on the slope in avalanche terrain and use caution in and around cornices that may be overhanging. 

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Our snowpack is fairly stable and right side up right now which is allowing people to have fun in avalanche terrain. The wind and Sun have affected a lot of the snow surface and have limited the powder to pockets that were sheltered. The chances of triggering an avalanche are very low today, but you always want to allow for a bit of room for error, so keep on doing a good job of covering the basics of wearing your beacon, shovel, and probe on your person and watch your partners travel one at a time on slopes steep enough to slide (>30 degrees) from a safe spot.  The size of some of the cornices and the amount that they are hanging over are impressive. Use caution in and around cornices that may be overhanging---they could break back further than you could imagine. 

Our test pits are showing weakness in the upper foot of the snowpack where a weak layer of facets has formed under a melt-freeze crust. Cold temps, crusts, and dense snow in the upper foot have helped the process of faceting snow.  This layer of facets are about 5cm thick and much more weak and developed or sugary on shady North aspects. The weather forecast is calling for enough snow later in the week to overload these weak layers of facets in the upper snowpack.