East Slopes Central

The east slopes of the Cascades received little to no new snow, and avalanches will be unlikely. The most significant hazard will likely be challenging travel on icy surfaces, so bring appropriate equipment to prevent uncontrollable slides. If you are traveling near the Cascade Crest, you may find a small amount of new snow over the crust and be able to trigger mini wet avalanches on steep sunny slopes. 

Instead of snow on Monday, most of the East Central zone saw partly cloudy skies with maybe 1-2 inches of snow on the western edge of the zone near the Cascade Crest. With sun breaks expected on Tuesday, you may be able to trigger mini wet loose avalanches that run easily on a stout crust from Valentine's Day. These mini avalanches will likely be too small to be a hazard by themselves but travel cautiously in areas where getting pushed off balance may result in long uncontrollable falls or impacts with obstacles increase the consequences. 

On Tuesday, harsh travel conditions on icy surfaces will likely be the most significant hazard. Cooler temperatures may make surfaces slower to soften, and slopes without direct sunlight probably won't soften at all. So bring equipment and travel cautiously to prevent long uncontrollable falls. 

In some locations near the crest, weak faceted snow may exist above or beneath a crust from late January. We haven't seen avalanches on this layer yet in this zone, but an observer reported a very large collapse at 4,000ft near Eightmile Lake last week. On Monday, forecaster Irene Henninger found this weak structure near Holden just about 5cm below the surface. While this isn't currently an issue, additional snow on top of this crust-facet combination may create a tricky persistent slab problem. Dig down and evaluate these layers if you are traveling on northern sheltered terrain. Look for weak, sugary snow over or below a firm melt-freeze crust.