Lawinenlagebericht

East Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Thu
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
2 · Mässig
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 3 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Wednesday should be a nice day to be out, but you can still trigger avalanches in pockets of wind-drifted snow. Consider steering around slopes that are actively loading or appear rounded and pillow-like. As the day warms up, keep an eye out for small wet loose avalanches on steep solar slopes.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–2

    You can trigger avalanches in pockets of wind-drifted snow on Wednesday. With sunny skies and calm winds, these slabs will likely become more stubborn to trigger, but not any less consequential. With that, I'd still give these spots a good buffer. 

    You’ll find these slabs lurking in specific areas such as the leeward side of ridges, under cornices, at the top of chutes/couloirs, and on convex alpine slopes.  Use visual clues to help you identify slopes of concern. Look for blowing snow, cornice growth, ripples, or rounded pillows at the snow surface to identify where the wind has been at work. Pump the brakes and avoid steep slopes if you see obvious signs of instability such as shooting cracks under your skis/sled or notice snow that sounds hollow like a drum. You can easily avoid this problem by sticking to more sheltered terrain out of the wind zone. 

    (12/3/2022)

    Actively blowing snow, freshly building sharp cornices, and textured surfaces. All easy-to-identify signs of wind-loading. Look for slabs to develop on the slopes on the left side of the picture.

    Photo: Dallas Glass

  • Loose Wet

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–1.5

    The sun is forecasted to come out, so you may encounter moist snow developing on solar aspects (W-SW-S-SE). The current upper snowpack is quite dry, so the sun may be a shock for the upper snowpack on a steep solar slopes. Rollerballs or pinwheels are precursors of wet loose avalanches. So think about moving to more shaded slopes out of the sun once you start seeing these signs. 

    On more shaded aspects (NW-N-NE-E), you will likely still encounter dry unconsolidated snow. In these areas dry loose sloughs may still be your bigger hazard in steep terrain. With this problem, have a plan before skiing into steeper rolls and make sure the run out is clean before committing to your line. 

    (12/3/2022)

    Rollerballs like this are signs of the snow surface is becoming wet and weak. 

    Photo: Zack McGill- Cascade Mtn Ascents

Avalanche Discussion

This weather pattern continues to favor parts of the East South and riding conditions are improving significantly. On Tuesday snotel sites across the zone picked up anywhere from 4-9 inches of new low density snow, with Green Lake receiving the most. 

NWAC forecaster Katie Warren traveled into the Ahtanum Meadows area on Tuesday. Generally she found 7-12 inches of new snow and excellent riding conditions. Snowpack test yielded unremarkable results, however, she did find some weak snow (rounding facets)  associated with the 2/13 interface about 20 inches below the snow surface. You can check out her observation here for more details. Before the storm cycle on the 25th, I traveled into the American Ridge area  near Bumping Lake and observed slick surfaces at lower elevations, dry faceting snow at upper elevations in the shade, and a thin sun crust on slopes with a southern tilt (observation). 

Thanks for the recent observations! 

 

 

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