Rain is causing a rising danger of loose wet avalanches, especially on lower elevation shady slopes. Dangerous avalanche conditions exist this evening Loose wet avalanches may entrain a good amount of snow in descent. Avoid and stay out from under steep slopes with saturated loose snow, and be wary around potential terrain traps like the river bed, benches, or gullies below.

The initial warming of the winter snowpack will also cause an increased danger of other avalanche types. The danger of triggered wet slabs, drier persistent slabs, wind slabs, and cornice falls is all increased due to the warm-up.

Isolated persistent slab avalanches up to 2 feet deep, failing on weak sugary faceted snow or basal layer depth hoar are unlikely but remain possible in outlying areas with shallow and poor snow structure. Warming this weekend could cause an increase in the danger of triggered persistent slab avalanches in areas with poor snow structure due to increased creep rates in the upper layers of the snowpack and slab softening. Whumpfing is a red flag indicating potential persistent slab instability.

You might trigger stiff wind slabs or cornice falls in steep drifted upper elevation terrain. These appeared well welded in place yesterday, but there are still likely to be suspect drifted areas in the Logan Zone. Ridge top cornices might break further back than expected, and cornice falls could trigger more dangerous slab avalanches on steep slopes below.