Snoqualmie Pass

Challenging travel conditions remain your biggest mountain hazard on Saturday. Expect slick and variable surfaces and consider boot and/or ski crampons to help with traction. Travel in the forest without a well-worn path is especially difficult. If you can find your way to and from, you may find soft recycled snow on shady and sheltered slopes at the middle and upper elevations.

So much for the fresh snow. Florida and Louisiana continue to hold the edge over the WA Cascades in recent snowfall. The primary hazard on Saturday will be navigating the difficult surface conditions. Even with sunny skies, cold temperatures and the low January sun aren’t likely to soften the snow surface, even on sunny slopes. Travel is generally more manageable—but still potentially hazardous—on open slopes. Here, you’ll encounter a mix of ice, breakable crust, supportable crust, and, on higher elevation shaded slopes… dry loud powder made up of facets and surface hoar. NWAC forecasters and snow professionals have reported better-than-expected surface conditions in sheltered, shady spots. However, getting to and from these areas remains a significant challenge. Often, softer, more favorable sliding surfaces are disconnected and interspersed with harder, firmer patches. It’s a mixed bag! Under the trees, the bag is less mixed. Refrozen tree bombs, frozen old tracks, and forest detritus have combined to make for really challenging and sometimes dangerous travel. 

To manage the travel hazards, try and plan a route that utilizes a well-worn and lower angle path to get you through the forest to more open slopes. In certain sections, walking may be the safest and most efficient mode of travel. Crampons and an ice axe could be essential—ensure you know how to use them. On sustained firm slopes, consider the consequences of a long, sliding fall and assess whether you can confidently arrest yourself if needed.

As for the snowpack, it is generally locked up. While there is plenty of weak snow on the surface as well as above, within, and just below the 1/10 crust, slab avalanche danger requires a slab—and we will need an actual storm to create one. There is minimal snow available for transport and facets or surface hoar don’t tend to pack together well to form a slab. Despite increasing wind speeds and shifting directions, we don’t expect any fresh wind slab formation. If you were to encounter an avalanche on Saturday, it would likely be in an isolated and extreme piece of high-elevation terrain where old wind-drifted snow sits on top of the 1/10 interface. While this is unlikely, it’s worth considering if your plans include complex terrain.