East Slopes South

The East South zone will not get much rain or snow out of Friday night's system, but small wind slabs could develop at the highest elevations. Navigate around steep slopes with 6" or more of recent snow siting above a melt-freeze crust or old snow.

Winds above treeline in the moderate range on Friday night along with around an inch or so of fresh snowfall at higher elevations, which may be enough to create some shallow slabs. You'll probably have to enter very steep terrain or the most heavily wind-loaded slopes to trigger one, but if you find more snow or wind loading than forecast, plan to dial back your ambitions accordingly. At lower elevations, Friday's warm temperatures may have settled the snowpack sufficiently to remove some of the shallow snowpack that exists.   Some rain is likely to fall Friday night near treeline and below before temperatures cool.

Expect a colder day with increasing sunshine and limited inputs that will affect the avalanche danger on Saturday as winds decrease.

The East South snowpack is far above average for this time of year with well-settled mid-elevation snowpacks in the 20-30" range, with 40" just to the west of this zone at White Pass. After our initial snowfall, a rain event and warm period built a supportable rain crust on November 16th. This has served to lock in the base of the snowpack and batter down vegetation creating surprisingly good travel conditions and snow coverage for November.  Snow that fell last week is generally well bonded to the 11/16 rain crust and no significant avalanche activity was observed in the recent snow.  Friday and Saturday (11/20-21) brought sunny, calm, and warm conditions. The snow surface stabilized as a crust formed on solar aspects and at lower elevations. Higher elevation and shaded slopes largely escaped the melt cycle and good travel conditions were found on these slopes throughout the weekend. Winds accompanied a storm arriving Tuesday night, which brought 2-6" of snow through Wendnesday.

Pay attention for early season hazards as you travel: Rocks, stumps, and vegetation may be barely covered and many creeks are open.

Now is a great time to run through your safety equipment and make sure everything is in good working order. CLICK HERE for more information on early-season equipment checks. What did you see out in the field? SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS with NWAC and the backcountry community. Check out this BLOG POST and VIDEO TUTORIAL to find out more about why observations are so important and how you can view and share information on NWAC’s new public observations platform.

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