risks of current warming

In past seasons I have tried to pay attention to these first warming days in spring closely. Is there a consensus on the risks this weekend? It looks warm up there today and tomorrow is slight lower but still plenty warm and heating up again Sunday. Any deep layers that could become a problem again?

I doubt you'll find any consensus. This warmup isn't as sharp as sometimes happens, but it's going to get rather warm and quite sunny. If you want to get snow moving, I imagine it'd be easy to do; NWAC's vote of Considerable on sunny aspects makes sense - natural slides possible, triggered slides likely. Stuff above the NWAC cutoff of 7k may be more reactive; it'll be the first time the freezing level's gone that high since the dumps of March. Mid-afternoon might be a fun time to watch the show from Glacier Vista, for example.

NWAC thinks this, re: deep slabs: "Generally well bonded and strong layers should also be seen in the mid and lower snowpack below the mid-March crust."

Thanks for the thoughts guys. We are going into the Olympics this weekend and I've been inspecting the data and forecasts. We'll be traversing some S-facing aspects....at the right times of day.

Good input, I would agree that zone around 7k and above could be touchy. I recall some more dramatic warming cyles in seasons past when Alta and others went pretty big at the pass. Perhaps those layers before the March storm still have some potential to move.

Hope you have a great trip Mack!

We couldn't get anything to move today even though we hit some steep sunbaked slopes midafternoon. Just yielded nice turns. Not even any sluffing. Snow was pretty solid everywhere.