East Slopes North

While conditions are generally safe there are a few things to keep in mind. Saturday will bring warm temperatures and a chance that snow surfaces could warm on south facing slopes. Coverage is still shallow, especially in the eastern mountains and at low elevations.

The big change for Saturday will be warming temperature. We don't anticipate this to be significant enough to increase the avalanches danger. That said, keep an eye out for indicators like melting snow surfaces and rollerballs on due south aspects. Along with the weak winter sun, the wind should strong enough to keep the snow surfaces cool. Slopes that already have a crust on the surface will be resistant to softening.

Southwest wind drifted shallow slabs around December 12th. Observers reported a small natural wind slab avalanche that likely ocurred that night on Blue Lake Peak at the top of Liberty Bowl (see photo below). These conditions weren't widespread and were only seen in specific slopes favored by the wind and transport. While there's some uncertainty, triggering similar avalanches is now unlikely. On Thursday, the mountains picked up 1-3" of snow even as far east as the Silverstar trailhead. Observers reported widespread surface hoar on a variety of slopes prior to the light accumulations.

Near the Cascade crest, you'll find a thin, breakable crust near the surface in terrain below 6300-6500 ft, that was formed from rain on December 10th. Well east of the Cascade crest, thecrust is thinner and it disapears in some places under tree canopy. An older crust (12/7) is about  16" below the snow surface. 

December 10th brought rain and wet avalanches following about 10-14" of recent snow. You can still see many of these avalanches pictured below near  Washington Pass here and at Harts Pass here.