The snow on most slopes became wet yesterday and the surface likely refroze overnight despite warm temperatures. It shouldn't take much warming today for the surface crust to melt, but winds today should help keep the snow from heating up too much.

The balance between sunshine, air temperatures, radiation, and wind all determine how warm and wet the snow becomes, and it is hard to know exactly how all those meteorological inputs will add up. The main point is to always expect some wet loose avalanches as the day heats up and to look for clues of a rising danger. Signs that wet avalanches will start happening include (1) seeing other small wet slides, (2) seeing snowballs roll downhill with increasing frequency, (3) seeing upper layers of snow become increasingly wet.

Searching for dry snow will take you to upper elevation, north facing slopes. Many slopes were scoured by northwest winds earlier this week, but others were cross loaded and may have isolated slabs of wind drifted snow that could produce an avalanche today like the one spotted in White Pine. Most of these wind slabs have likely stabilized, but I would avoid large, obvious drifts and look for snow unaffected by those winds.

The glide avalanche seen in Broads Fork yesterday is a good reminder of this avalanche problem that will be a threat for the rest of the spring. Liquid water moves though the snow and around underlying rocks in ways at times we can't observe. The timing of a glide avalanche release has been studied, and it is generally unpredictable.

What is predictable is where these avalanches happen which is typically in Broads Fork, Stairs Gulch and other places with smooth rock slabs underneath the snow. There is often a large crack in the snow that extends to the ground visible before these avalanches happen. The main strategy to avoid this problem is to avoid being under any slope with a visible glide crack, and personally I'd avoid being under any terrain with large rock slabs under the snow.