Lawinenlagebericht

East Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Tue
Hochgebirge
3 · Erheblich
Waldgrenze
3 · Erheblich
Unterhalb
2 · Mässig
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist last year abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Wet avalanches at the tail end of a rain event are sneakily dangerous. They often don’t give you much warning, but large natural slides and cornice falls can still occur. Give steep slopes a wide berth and limit any time you spend below large open faces.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wet Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Very Likely
    Größe
    1.5–2.5

    As the rain tappers off, the frequency of wet avalanches should slowly drop. But, it takes time for water to work its way through the snowpack. In some ways, this makes dealing with this problem harder. There’s no simple tool for assessing wet slabs or large cornices. Even as the likelihood is dropping, water is reaching deeper and could release larger slides. 

    The only way to deal with this problem is avoidance. You aren’t likely to trigger these beasts, but you certainly don’t want to be on or under one of these slopes if it releases. This includes openings in the forest below steep open slopes. If you cross a track and runout, do it quickly. 

    Wet slabs and cornices aren’t the only issues. You may trigger wet loose slides on steep slopes. These avalanches should be smaller, but with so much heavy snow, they might grab you and not let go. Stick to lower angle and treed terrain to stay out of their grasp.

    (12/29/2024)

    Example A large natural wet avalanche from the west face of Teanaway Mt. earlier this winter.

    Photo: Rob Pollard

Avalanche Discussion

Avalanche forecasters hate conditions like this. Sure, part of that is because travel conditions are often bad, but it’s mostly the unpredictability of wet avalanche problems. Here’s what we know. There’s been a lot of rain, especially in the western part of the zone. As of Sunday afternoon, several stations show an inch of precipitation. Snow levels climbed to at least 6000ft and should continue to increase. Prior to this storm, the snowpack was generally dry and layered above about 5000ft. Even if there’s uncertainty around the wet avalanche problem, all of these variables point towards unstable wet snow. 

Farther east in the zone, much less water fell. Weather stations in the Wenatchee Mts picked up 0.2-0.4” as of Sunday afternoon. That might not be enough water to tip the scales. However, the snowpack is thinner, weaker, and more variable in these areas. Ultimately, it’s not something that can be easily determined. 

At lower elevations, the snowpack is beat up. Other than small wet loose slides, you aren’t likely to trigger a notable avalanche. Instead, the danger comes from above. Watch out for runout zones even down in the forest. If you manage to slog through all the wet snow, you may find dry wind slabs at the highest elevations. Winds were ripping (gusting to 75mph) during the storm. Slabs could be hard, thick, and dangerous. 

An NWAC forecaster braved the rain on Sunday at Blewett Pass. While this was one of the driest places in the zone, she still found wet snow issues by mid-day. Rollerballs were common. She also noticed the very strong winds along ridgelines.

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