Lawinenlagebericht

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Mon
Hochgebirge
4 · Gross
Waldgrenze
4 · Gross
Unterhalb
3 · Erheblich
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 3 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

A big, wet storm with rising snow levels will saturate the mountains with rain up to 6000’ by afternoon. Expect large natural avalanches at the peak of the storm - some could run long distances. Very strong winds and stormy, nasty conditions provide even more reasons to come up with alternatives to mountain travel for Sunday.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wet Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Very Likely
    Größe
    1.5–2.5

    Avalanche problems will evolve over the course of the day. In the morning there will be enough new snow that fresh storm and wind slabs will be the primary concern. As the rain-snow line rises avalanches will shift more toward wet loose. With enough rain wet slabs, glide avalanches and cornice falls will come into play.

    At the end of the day, the actual problems are less important than acknowledging the weather factors that will make Sunday a dangerous one. Rising freezing levels very, very strong winds, and plenty of precipitation are all the reasons needed to avoid being on or under steep slopes. Natural avalanches are not guaranteed everywhere, but the weather and snowpack setup to see them in some places in a sure thing.

    If traveling at lower elevations, move quickly through or simply avoid gullies or other terrain features you suspect could funnel avalanche debris from higher elevations.

Avalanche Discussion

Observers up and down the west slopes found challenging travel conditions on crusty snow. Overnight temperatures were in the mid-20s at 5000’ at many mountain locations. This made for a breakable crust and locked up the snowpack nearly anyplace that saw rain in the last 48 hours. On the plus side, fresh snowfall started first thing in the morning and lasted most of the day. This improved riding conditions but also provided snow for moderate winds to drift onto leeward slopes Shallow but reactive wind slabs were found in the Baker Backcountry/West North by mid morning.

With better visibility, some of the damage from the last round of natural avalanches became more apparent. Large wet loose avalanches to D2 were observed Friday and Saturday in parts of West North and Snoqualmie Pass as well. While the mountains didn’t exactly fall apart at the seams, the last storm brought enough precipitation at warm temperatures to shake things up.

Precipitation totals across West Central weather stations averaged around 1" for the latest storm with the rain-snow line hovering around 4500'-5000'. The White Chuck Tripod saw steady above freezing temperatures and a loss of 4" of overall snow height. This means it probably rained for the duration of the storm in the mountains east of Darrington.

 

 

 

 

 

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