Boletín de aludes

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Peligro de aludes

Sat
Alta montaña
2 · Moderado
Límite del bosque
2 · Moderado
Bajo el límite
2 · Moderado
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Desactualizado: este boletín caducó 2 years ago. Estás viendo condiciones pasadas, no el boletín vigente.

Lo esencial

Continued rain and warm weather will maintain the possibility of wet avalanches and further deteriorate travel conditions. Be leery of slopes containing sagging cornices, large cracks, or blocks of snow clinging to rocky ledges. They could fail without warning and travel long distances on a firm crust. 

Problemas de aludes

  • Glide Cracks

    • Alta montaña
    • Límite del bosque
    • Bajo el límite del bosque
    Probabilidad
    Possible
    Tamaño
    2–2.5

    Wet avalanche activity should be grinding toward a halt after this week's atmospheric river event. But we just haven't cooled down quite enough to fully take it off the forecast. Focus your attention on low-likelihood, high-consequence wet slides such as glides. Look for slopes with sagging cornices, crevasse-like cracks, or precariously hanging blocks of snow on rocky ledges. They can help you identify locations where one of these unpredictable avalanches could occur. 

    Although freezing rain helped mute avalanche potential at lower elevations, you should still be on guard when you're traveling down low. A larger slide could initiate on slopes above you and travel long distances on the icy surface.

    (12/18/2024)

    A large natural wet avalanche coming out of the Shot 6 area of Alpental Ski Resort. This slide occurred naturally overnight between 12/17 and 12/18 and is a frequent glide producer.

    Photo: Summit at Snoqualmie Pro Patrol

Avalanche Discussion

Earlier this week, an atmospheric river event delivered roughly 3.5" of precipitation to The Pass. Although it started as snow, it quickly transitioned to rain above ~4400', and freezing rain below. This made a mess of our already thin early-season snowpack and kicked off a wet avalanche cycle. 

Observations from the storm and days post are limited, likely due to difficult travel conditions. What we do know is that the Summit at Snoqualmie Pro Patrol reported glide avalanches coming out of their Shot 6 area at Alpental. Other glide cracks have been spotted around the Alpental Valley, which have not yet released. There may not be enough new rain to tip many more slopes over the edge after absorbing so much water earlier in the week. But we're not exactly cooling and locking things up, either. We're kind of just puttering along with moist to wet snow, poor overnight refreezes, and daytime warming (albeit December daytime warming). That all adds up to maintaining the potential for difficult-to-predict wet avalanches. 

We also know that a stout freezing rain crust, extending as high as 4400' exists throughout much of the Pass proper due to freezing rain. A blessing and a curse - the freezing rain likely helped save our lower elevation snowpack by capping it in ice and protecting it from the soaking rain. 

This week certainly isn't helping our early-season snowpack. Anticipate difficult travel due to hazards such as firm crusts, frozen avalanche debris, swollen creeks, open holes, and exposed rocks/logs. In certain terrain, there’s a chance you could slip and go for a long uncontrolled slide. So travel with the appropriate gear and default to lower-angled slopes if the surface is firm and slick.

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