Lawinenlagebericht

West Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Mon
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 6 months ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

The new snow seems to fail easily on very steep slopes and convex rollovers. Fortunately, these avalanches are fairly small and easy to manage. Just don’t let one take you for a ride over a cliff or bury you in a deep gully.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Storm Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–1.5

    With storm totals from around the zone only ranging from 4 to 10 inches, it’s hard to really call them ‘storm’ slabs. However, observations on Saturday found the new snow often failed easily at the base of the new snow (2/13 interface). These very soft slabs didn’t propagate far, but often entrained snow as they descended more like a loose avalanche. 

    You may trigger an avalanche in very steep terrain, on convex rollovers, or in wind loaded areas. Their small size keeps these slides from being particularly dangerous. Instead, the hazard comes more from the terrain rather than the avalanche itself. Even tiny slides can have dire results in high consequence or extreme terrain.

    (2/14/2026)

    This small soft slab avalanche entrained snow more like a loose slide and ran on an underlying crust. 

    Photo: Northwest Avalanche Center

Avalanche Discussion

The West South zone could receive another inch or two (or three???) Saturday night. While not exactly the most impressive storm, we’ll take it. Storm totals range from about 4 inches at White Pass to 6-8 inches at Paradise, Mt Saint Helens, and Crystal Mountain. This new snow buried the 2/13 interface. On southerly aspects, this is often a firm crust that may or may not have facets and surface hoar over it. In more shaded terrain, larger surface hoar and sugary facets were found under the new snow, even just below ridge crest. At the moment, there’s just not enough new snow to pose a huge risk, but these weak grains are something to keep an eye on. Often, avalanches propagate widely or can even be triggered from below when surface hoar and/or facets are the culprit. 

In shaded terrain, below the 2/13 interface, there are other subtle crusts and occasional weak facets down to the 2/7 crust. This is often a much thicker and more prominent crust about 10-15 inchs below the surface. Avalanches that fail may entrain snow down to and run easily on any of these crust layers.

We expect skies to stay cloudy on Sunday, but if the sun comes out, you could see small natural loose avalanches running on southerly slopes. Keep this issue in the back of your mind, in case the skies start to clear. If you see new rollerballs or small point release slides, expect wet looes avalanches on similar slopes. 

This new snow has certainly been a welcome sight! However, it hasn’t magically fixed all our travel woes. You may encounter breakable crust, icy slopes, thin coverage, and random holes. Give yourself some extra time to deal with these persistent travel challenges. 

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