The shady aspects are still holding dry snow. The cost of admission will be crunchy crust uptracking/skiing to get somewhere cooler and drier, but it could be worth the effort. Shady areas are skiing well. No joke!
There are two layers of concern here: 1) a buried sun crust (on solar) and facets (on polar) down 20-40cm, and 2) a facet/depth hoar layer down 80-100cm that was buried mid season. These layers have become more active within the recent additional snow load, and are more prone to triggering during periods of intense solar radiation.
Thin, shallow areas or heavy triggers are what will set this layer off. Avoid terrain with those characteristics. Intense solar radiation and daytime heating may wake up this layer.
No avalanches have been reported today.
Crust season is underway. Anything with a hint of solar exposure now has a 3-5cm crust. Valley bottom is still unsupportive underneath the crust. The surface crust extends to alteast 2200m and even higher on south and southwest slopes. At about 2000m there's a bit more structure and the snowpack is supportive. This is where the trouble layers start to become more apparent. The weak facet and depth hoar is down about 60-80cm at treeline and the weak basal layers are down about 120-150cm. Winds picked up today with noticeable transport at ridge top.
Once again, forecasts disagree on incoming snow amounts, but the lowest number is 50cm and the highest is 60cm. Not only that, the winds will be dead calm at all elevations. This is also consistent with the weather patterns this year. And if that isn't enough, cloud cover will be light which will keep the snow dry all day. How's that for a forecast? Almost too good to be true.
Sorry, this is the best short notice April Fools joke I could come up with that's bulletin friendly. I know, not my best material. Anyway, moving on...The real forecast is a bit more Ho Hum. Light flurries, light westerly winds with moderate gusts at ridgeline. Max temperature of -4 and a freezing level of about 2000m.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
