It may not feel like it but it's still winter at the uppermost most elevations on Douglas. While the new snow seems to be coming in warm, wet, and bonding well to old snow surfaces human triggered avalanches are possible today within the storm slab. Watch for signs of instability within the new snow like shooting cracks and especially on steeper unsupported terrain. Remember to use good travel practices and ski/ride one at a time with partners acting as spotters.
Todays avalanche forecast is made possible by a donation from https://www.juneaumountainrescue.org/
New snow at higher elevations combined with moderate wind out of the Southeast will create a storm slab that could be reactive to triggering. This will only be the case above the rainline where new snow has been accumulating.
With above freezing temps as of late wet slab avalanches could be a factor today with rain levels fluctuating and temps not going below freezing for a long duration at some elevations.
With our current cell and internet outage a lot of weather stations are offline right now leaving last nights weather a bit of a guessing game. There was a midweek cycle that saw natural avalanches around Douglas, but no natural avalanches were repoorted or observed yesterday and stability tests were mostly unreactive. The constant warm and wet weather of the last week has broken down many of the crusts and sugary faceted layers within our snowpack. Avalanche problems today will most likely be within the new storm snow. At mid and lower elevations we've been seeing mostly rain and the snowpack and run out zones are almost bare at this point leaving many non avalanche hazards like trees, rocks, standing water, and open creeks.
