Avalanche Advisory
Advisory: Skyline Area Mountains Issued by Brett Kobernik for Thursday - March 2, 2017 - 6:52am
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Avalanche conditions are fairly safe right now. You will want to continue to avoid the most recent drifts on steep north through southeast facing slopes above 9500'. Human triggered avalanches are still possible in this terrain. Also, pay attention to how much the sun is heating the sunny facing slopes. It's possible that the sun may heat some slopes to the point they become unstable and produce natural wet avalanches. Avoid being on steep sunny slopes and gullies when the snow becomes wet. Rollerballs and pinwheeling are signs that the snow is becoming too wet.
current conditions

The overnight wind from Tuesday night spared the Skyline for the most part. There are some huge fresh drifts along the higher elevations. I poked at a number of them and did not find them to be sensitive. I was not able to get any significant cracking in the new wind drifts and slabs. That said, I'd have a hard time trusting a large drift on a very steep slope still.

Sunny slopes warmed on Wednesday and you'll find a thin melt freeze crust on many of them. Fairly cool temperatures on Wednesday counteracted the sun and the sunny slopes didn't get as wet as I anticipated. Temperatures will be about 10 degrees warmer today and the snow will become more damp on the sunny slopes.
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general announcements

We will publish full detailed advisories Saturday and Sunday mornings by 7am. We will also be publishing basic avalanche danger ratings & info during the week.

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