Stevens Pass

A dusting of snow overnight won't affect our generally safe avalanche conditions. You can still expect a high price of admission to get through the chunky, icy surfaces in the forest at lower elevations in search of sheltered, soft snow at higher elevations. In addition, the cold temperatures will likely limit the sun's ability to soften steep southern aspects.  

It's not the healthy dose of snow we were hoping for, but it'll be nice to see a fresh dusting of white regardless. Any lingering clouds early on Friday will clear, providing another sunny, cold day. Thanks to Thursday's warm temperatures, southern aspects softened, providing options for less icy travel on spring-like corn snow. Unfortunately, don't bet on that for Friday since much colder temperatures may limit sunny slopes from softening, so keep that in mind if you're aiming for southern aspects. 

Backcountry travelers are searching far and wide for better travel conditions and occasionally find them. If you are looking for soft, dry snow, the northern aspects at upper elevations in wind-sheltered areas are your best bet. If that sounds a bit like searching for a unicorn, you're probably right. You will likely need to travel through rough and icy conditions under the forest canopy to access upper elevations and then find those elusive areas without a firm wind-crust. Southern slopes might be smooth with supportable crusts, but they'll likely be quite icy, and slips and falls could be dangerous. Eastern and Western aspects have breakable crusts of varying thicknesses to navigate. Shady slopes and north-facing aspects holding cold, dry snow are becoming very weak, with large faceted grains and surface hoar. 

THIS observation from an outing to the Swath/North Chiwaukum on Monday further sums up finding challenging snow surfaces and travel conditions. Consider carrying crampons and an ice axe if you plan on going into the alpine.  However, they did find the occasional small pockets of soft snow.

If you get out in the mountains, let us know what you see by submitting an observation HERE or via the Avy App.