Olympics

Some upper elevation slopes maintain rideable snow on shaded aspects, but it won't be easy to reach these areas. A few inches of fresh snow at these elevations could form shallow drifts where you can trigger a very small avalanche. If a slide carries you in extreme terrain, it won't be a friendly ride through early season obstacles.

Saturday was the warmest day on Hurricane Ridge since November 9th. The temperature rose to 49F under mostly sunny skies. This brought visibility throughout the Hurricane Ridge area and into the interior of the Olympics. The reduction in snow coverage over the last month has become even more striking. Very small patches of snow can be found near the top of a historically wind-loaded, shaded bowl with what appears to be a small pile of melting debris in the basin. Further afield, even upper-elevation north-facing aspects look thin with plenty of rocks and other obstacles now poking through. Simply put, rideable snow and by extension avalanche concerns are highly limited.

If you do make it to these highest elevations, portions of the Olympics could recieve several inches of snow above 6000-6500 ft, with light rainfall below. Elevations with existing snow cover are more likely to be in the wet snow category. In these areas, you'll want to pay attention to the average snow depth, wind direction, depth, and reactivity of drifting snow below ridgelines and sharp cornices. While these avalanches should be small, any ride would be consequential in these early season conditions. Steer around steep actively or recently wind-loaded slopes.

Keep in mind that new snow may fall on slick surfaces. These sorts of conditions have been noted on Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, and Mt Hood in recent days. Without sunshine, rain-saturated snow will be firm where it has frozen solid. Make sure you have the tools and skills to arrest a fall. 

It's grim out there right now, but not all hope is lost. With winter-like conditions forecast to return by mid-week, keep in mind that if you do get out on a weekday when we don't have an active forecast product issuance, conditions may be drastically different from the current forecast. Avalanche danger can form quickly on the relatively smooth slopes of the Olympics, but there will be many hazards just beneath the snow surface. Prepare an assessment mindset if you head out during colder storms later in the week.

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.

NWAC will issue an avalanche forecast every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and every holiday mid-week day the Hurricane Ridge Road is open from December until the end of March.  We will issue Avalanche Watches or Warnings when conditions warrant.  We will not update the non-holiday midweek discussion.  Our mountain weather forecasts will continue to cover the Olympics and are issued twice a day through the end of April.  If you have questions or feedback, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected].