Lawinenlagebericht

West Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Fri
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 5 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Pay attention as you transition into wind-affected terrain and steer around fresh drifts on slopes greater than 35 degrees. Textured surfaces and cornices can point out slopes you want to avoid. Seek out wind-sheltered or low-angle terrain to reduce your risk.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–2

    Cold low-density snow continues to accumulate and will easily be drifted into fresh slabs at upper elevations. You can find wind slabs on exposed features and along ridgelines. You could also trigger them in gullies, on convex rollovers, or along the base of cliffs. Look for clues like blowing snow, textured surfaces, and small drifts to point out which features you want to steer around. 

    The winds in the mountains continue to shift directions. As a result, you might run into wind slabs in areas you don’t normally suspect. In wind-sheltered areas, you may find unconsolidated snow with loose dry sluffs possible on steep, unsupported slopes.

    (12/13/2021)

    Sharp cornices and smooth snow pillows indicate wind loading on this slope. East Peak, Crystal backcountry. 

    Photo: Robin Pendry

Avalanche Discussion

The West South zone picked up a couple of inches of snow over the past 24 hours with variable winds. The cold snowy pattern looks to continue with another 1-3in Thursday, and slightly higher snow amounts possible near Mt St Helens and Mt Adams.

With all the recent snow, access into the mountains increased dramatically. Before you step out into larger and less forgiving terrain, consider using small low consequence slopes to gather information and confirm the forecast. Even though it suddenly feels like winter, it’s still early season, and we have limited information about the snowpack across this very large zone. 

Storms over the past week resulted in several natural and triggered avalanches including a fatal accident. The last observed avalanches were reported on Sunday 12/12. As the storm cycle and avalanche activity has slowed, observations continue to find a generally right-side-up snowpack comprised mostly of storm snow layers. One older layer we have our eye on is a thin crust (12/8) about 4-6” above the icy block at the bottom of the snow (Late November crust). Inconsistent test results and a variable distribution around the zone, make this layer hard to nail down. So far, we have not confirmed any avalanches failed at this interface.

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