West Slopes North

Breakable crusts resulting in challenging travel are probably your biggest hazard of the day. If the sun shines intensely, south-facing aspects may soften for a few hours and there's a very small chance you could trigger a small wet loose avalanche or a natural one might occur. 

I traveled to Artist Point in the Baker backcountry, up to 5200' on Monday. I found a substantial breakable crust on all aspects and elevations. Traveling over the breakable surface crust was a larger concern to me than avalanches. The one exception to the crust was steep, south-facing aspects, which received a surprising amount of solar input for this time of year. On this small slice of terrain, the crust broke down and surfaces became soft and moist. However, due to the surface having already been saturated and refrozen, new avalanche activity was minimal. 

On Tuesday, you could see another round of softening on steep, south-facing slopes, resulting in a very small chance of wet loose avalanches. Temperatures are expected to get warmer, with a freezing level of 7500ft. You might be able to trigger a wet loose avalanche if you're sinking to your ankles or deeper, and there's even less of a chance that a natural avalanche might occur. These avalanches will likely remain small. Shady slopes and lower-angle terrain will stay cold and firm as long as we've got clear skies.  In the unlikely circumstance that we get cloud cover, more aspects could soften. 

I didn't travel to upper elevations on Monday. The surface crust and moist underlying snow likely extended 1000ft or more above my maximum elevation, to well over 6000ft. Any residual wind slabs near the top of the upper elevation band were extremely wind-hammered and were then consolidated by the warm temperatures at the end of the storm. These conditions probably strengthened any weaknesses that are now more than 48 hours old. Nevertheless, if you travel this high, be prepared to evaluate conditions for yourself, and in particular, identify any failure planes or weaknesses in wind-stiffened slabs of snow that would indicate avoiding steep, wind-loaded terrain. 

Over a foot of snow fell Saturday afternoon and night while the wind was gusting at least into the 40s at the Pan Dome weather station. The wind affected nearly all mid and upper-elevation slopes, texturing surfaces and forming wind slabs.  Afterwards, it rained. According to the Heather Meadows weather station, we saw less than half an inch of rain but it had extensive impacts on the snowpack, far above the 5200ft elevation I traveled to on Monday. Unexpectedly clear skies Sunday night meant we had a surprising amount of surface freeze Monday morning, where even at my highest elevation, there was a 5cm (2") surface crust. Beneath the crust I found moist snow, and then a 2cm-thick layer of pooling water at the bottom of the new snow layer, about 1.5ft down. 

Enjoy the sun while we've got it! If you're traveling in the backcountry in the West North zone, especially to upper elevations, help us learn more about conditions by submitting an observation.