In the Spring, cold temps lock up the snowpack, making travel fast and lowering danger levels. Warm temps do the opposite, causing the mountains to shed their winter coats.
With this in mind, get up early, hustle to finish your objective, and enjoy the afternoon heat from your patio. If it's too hot, back off until another day.
Strong SW winds have redistributed the new snow and formed slabs in immediate lee features at Treeline and above. These slabs sit upon a crust on nearly all aspects. This near-surface crust is absent on high N'ly facing Alpine slopes.
Without a proper cold night to refreeze the snowpack surface, point releases of sloppy snow can gather significant mass as it rumbles downslope. This mass can gouge deeply, especially at lower elevations.
On Tues, a field team was able to easily trigger size 1 storm slabs on steep rolls at Treeline and cut cornices triggering up to size 2 loose wet avalanches on steep faces. Loose snow avalanches were accumulating mass in the paths and running far.
A group exiting the Asulkan cabin Mon morning was able to easily trigger wet loose avalanches up to size 1.5 while descending the moraines.
Natural wet loose avalanche cycles, up to size 2, occurred on Sun and Mon in the highway corridor.
The upper snowpack constantly changes in the Spring. Dry to moist (elevation dependent) snow is sandwiched by multiple melt-freeze crusts. High Alpine, polar-facing slopes hold cold, dry snow, while S'ly slopes warm up daily, creating another crust for snow to fall upon.
Wind slab is evident in immediate lee features, both at ridgecrest and along crossloaded slopes, Treeline and above.
Persistent weak layers linger in the mid-snowpack but will likely remain inactive.
Convective flurries and gusty winds continue across the region.
Tonight cloudy, clear periods. Alp low -4°C. Ridge wind S 20km/h. Freezing Level (FZL) 1200m.
Thu Wet flurries, 10cm. Alp high 4°C. Ridge wind SW 25, gusting 75km/h. FZL 2600m.
Fri Clouds with sun, isolated flurries. Alp high -3°C. Ridge wind SW 25-65. FZL 1600m.
Sat Sun, cloud, and flurries. Alp high -6°C. Ridge wind W 20-40km/h. FZL 1400m.
