Stevens Pass

Expect mild temperatures and a mix of sun and clouds. You could see some small roller balls on steep slopes in the surface snow. Avalanches are unlikely, though travel on firm crusts and debris could be challenging. 

You could see roller balls on steep slopes if enough sun or light rain melts the snow surface. These shouldn't be big enough to pose danger to backcountry travelers. At the highest elevations, you may encounter very thin drifted slabs of snow.

Light accumulations over the week have added up to about 3-5" of dry snow on high elevation shaded slopes. On Saturday,  warm temperatures with a mix of sun and clouds will prevail. There's a chance for precipitation late in the day. Firm crusts on or just under the surface and lots of frozen avalanche debris may make travel conditions challenging.  Expect winds to increase Saturday night, which could form some very shallow, fresh wind slabs for Sunday.

With a potentially stormy week ahead, this is a good time to track the surfaces that will soon be buried. Pay attention to any soft, weak snow on or near the snow surface. A stout crust formed during the last atmospheric river event on March 1st and was buried in many places on March 3rd. On some shaded and upper elevations slopes, you can find weak snow just above the early March crust.

There was a widespread, natural avalanche cycle in most of the Cascades on February 28th, while the area received heavy snow, followed by heavy rain up to at least 6,500ft. The avalanche cycle in the Stevens Pass zone included multiple slides at size D2.5-3, and many smaller avalanches. Observers reported avalanches running on unusually low-angle terrain. Check out the avalanche database for details of some of these.