Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Signs of instability were absent below 4000 feet. Approaching 4500 feet, ~1-foot deep storm slabs easily reacted when cut with skis on a steep slope. Moist dense snow on top of lighter, drier snow contributed to this instability. Wet-loose roller balls and evidence of recent rockfall were observed in steep sunny terrain.
Weather
- Air Temp
- low 30s
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 30 above 4000 feet
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Sunny weather with patchy clouds made for a warm spring day throughout our forecast area. Light NE winds were redistributing small amounts of dry snow on isolated high peaks near the top of the pass. Solar warming was quickly begining to affect the snowpack on all sunny slopes up to 5000+_ feet.
Snowpack
Only a few centimeters of storm snow were observed from road level to about 4000 feet. Higher elevations had up to a foot of storm snow that was becoming top-heavy and sensitive with warming temperatures. Solar radiation was affecting sunny slopes to at least 5000 feet and probably higher. Buried surfaces included crusts and facets down low and mostly impenetrable windslab up higher in the area i travelled. Increasing solar radiation is quickly creating instability within recently deposited storm snow while also putting stress on buried weak layers.
Avalanche
No significant avalanche activity was observed on my tour. Driving home in the afternoon heat, I observed a widespread wet loose avalanche cycle throughout the area, especially in the maritime zone, where hundreds of solar-triggered avalanches occurred today. Most sunny slopes from East to South produced solar-triggered wet loose activity up to size D2 into the early afternoon. Some of these are easily observed above town. There have also been reports of a few small to large human-triggered slab avalanches throughout the area (more info to come). The takeaway: spring warming is increasing stress and instability, causing a variety of avalanche hazards that are expected to continue.