It's exploring season! As long as you're ready to travel on a variable crust and limit your travel in isothermal snow, conditions are excellent for all kinds of backcountry travel.
Slushy, isothermal snow conditions can emerge on sun-facing slopes during the heat of the day. Plan your route with this dynamic in mind to avoid getting surprised by difficult travel and rising wet loose avalanche danger.
No new avalanches have been reported recently, and under current conditions, very little activity is expected. If you get out into the backcountry, post a MIN!
All of the Island snowpack has seen temperatures well above 0 °C at this point. Clear overnight periods will allow surface crusts to form, particularly above the freezing level, expected to be 1700 m Tuesday night. Even after repeated melt-freeze cycles, travelers appear to still be finding enough boot and ski penetration for effective travel.
Expect surfaces to become moist during the day and even isothermal on sun-facing slopes. Wet loose avalanche danger emerges when this condition is in play, a counterpoint to slip-and-fall hazards when the surface is well-frozen. Outside of oscillating surface conditions, there are no layers of concern in the snowpack. We still have about 190 cm at 1450 m.
Tuesday Night
Clear skies. 5 to 10 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 1 °C. Freezing level 1500 m.
Wednesday
Sunny. 10 km/h northwest ridgetop wind. Treeline high temperature 5 °C. Freezing level to 1700 m.
Thursday
Sunny. 5 to 10 km/h variable northerly ridgetop wind. Treeline temperature 8 °C. Freezing level to 2700 m.
Friday
Sunny. 5 to 20 km/h south ridgetop wind, increasing. Treeline high temperature 7 °C. Freezing level 2600 m, cooling a bit over the day.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
