Gudauri

Strong SW and S winds moving the new snow have built dense, reactive slabs near ridges, which if triggered could also trigger older layers.

Weak facet layers in the lower half of the snowpack, in high alpine shady areas, could create a large avalanche event if triggered. As the snowpack warms, these layers are becoming moist and are less reactive, but they have still 'performed' in recent tests, especially in shallower areas (where the snowpack is less than about 140cm). There is a lot of new weight of wet snow that has been added over the last few days, and observations have shown that the old layers have released recently as wet slabs, up to about 2850m. Be very wary of wide, steep slopes in the high alpine especially on N aspects, and avoid common trigger points such as areas where the snow is shallow (e.g. near rocks) or steep convex roll-overs.

With wet new snow, rain lower down, a saturated snowpack at lower elevations, and a high freezing level, wet loose AND wet slab avalanches are possible everywhere, even on N aspects in the high alpine zone. The danger is lower in the sub-lapine due to lack of snow, but beware of areas that still hold snow as rain or heating can make it move.

Recent Avalanches:

Multiple wet loose and wet sab avalanches size 1 -3 from many aspects and evelvations were seen in the last week - observations limited by visibility in the last couple of days.

Snowpack:

The snow is warm and moist everywhere, even at high elevations on shady aspects, although there are still loose snow crystals near the ground in the high alpine zone. A soft melt-freeze crust funder the new snow was found at 2960m on a NW aspect, and the lower loose layer of old moist facets failed across the block in an ECT test at the same location. Total rainfall recorded at 1950m since Monday 31st of March is nearly 70mm, with 30 - 40 cm of snow building up at high elevations, affected by S 1/4 winds. Although there has been a little snow accumulation down to 2200m in the last couple of days, the previous rain has eroded most of the snowpack below 2500m on S aspects, with more snow surviving in some N aspect areas.

More dreary weather with rain down low and a bit more snow up high, heaviest on Monday when up to 30cm could fall after midday. A slight clearance on Tuesday morning then more light rain/snow before some heavy precipitaion arrives on Wednesday. Stronger S/SW winds are forecast at high elevtions over the next 3 days. Freezing level 2400m rising to 2900m Tuesday.