East Slopes South

A cooling trend should minimize avalanche hazard Sunday, but small human-triggered wet avalanches may be possible where you find above freezing temperatures and wet surface snow.  Limit your exposure to large avalanche paths, especially where cornice fall could awaken deeper instabilities in the snowpack.

Several days of warm and sunny weather led to a natural loose wet avalanche cycle over the last few days. Sunday brings clouds and a cooling trend which should further stabilize the snowpack. Overnight Saturday, the snow may not go through a solid freeze cycle and temperatures could remain above freezing midday Sunday. This will maintain the possibility for human-triggered cornice failures and small wet avalanches.  Avoid extreme terrain features at lower elevations where you find wet surface snow. 

Following a cold and snowy February that featured several distinct avalanche cycles, the last week has been milder and relatively tame.  Deep slab instabilities above the mid-January crust/facet combo caused very large and even historic avalanches in neighboring zones from late February through the first days of March.  The most recent large-very large natural avalanche observed near the East South zone occurred on March 1st on Spiral Butte just east of White Pass.  We have dropped the Deep Persistent Slab problem in the neighboring zones except for East Central. In the Wenatchee mountains where this interface is closer to 2-3 feet down from the surface, snowpack tests and isolated reports of whumpfing mean this problem may be unlikely but not done for now. 

In areas of the zone with a shallower snowpack, especially higher elevation start zones with aspects on the northern half of the compass, continue to avoid traveling in or lingering below large avalanche paths.  Cornices have grown large over the last few weeks and deserve your respect while traveling along ridgelines or below slopes with overhanging cornices.  Cornice fall could be the right-sized trigger to wake up deeper instabilities.  Make your travel plans with this low-likelihood, high-consequence deep slab avalanche problem in mind. Take a look at the media reel or Conditions Blog to get a sense of just how large and destructive these deep slab avalanches were less than 2 weeks ago.  

During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, continue to follow the latest guidance from local, state, and federal health officials. Avoid unnecessary risks that could impact first responders and stress medical resources.  Wear a mask when appropriate, practice social distancing, and consider recreating closer to home.