Snoqualmie Pass

Even with a little rain and warm temperatures, without the help of the sun, frozen snow surfaces likely won’t soften significantly keeping any avalanche concerns in check Wednesday. Instead, you’ll find variable snow conditions with breakable crusts, icy slopes, and heavy wet snow.

The snow surface around Snoqualmie Pass is a real mixed bag of very firm icy slopes, punchy wet snow, breakable crusts, and a few lingering pockets of dry powder. On Tuesday, increasing clouds really prevented frozen surfaces from softening. That isn’t likely to change much by Wednesday. Smooth slopes out in the open are likely to stay icy. Wet snow in the forest should remain punchy. And, breakable crusts will probably stay… well, breakable. These variable conditions could create the greatest difficulty and potential risk you face. 

The good news is, the snowpack is generally stable and any avalanche issues are extremely limited. The little bit of rain and warm temperatures we’re expecting shouldn’t be enough to create unstable wet snow on the surface. Cloudy skies and a cooling breeze will work to offset any melting of frozen slopes. Additionally, while you may encounter very strong winds in the morning, there just isn’t much snow left to blow around and form wind slabs. That’s not to say you won’t be able to find a very isolated pocket of unstable snow. This will be most likely if either more rain falls than expected or if the cloudy skies clear significantly in the afternoon. Watch for wet and sticky snow near shallow spots in the snowpack especially near rocks and cliffs. New rollerballs often serve as an excellent clue that the snowpack is nearing its tipping point. If you see fresh pinwheels be leery of similar nearby slopes.

Even in this period of Low avalanche danger, you can still find weak layers of snow. We’ve been talking about the Late January Crust-Facets for more than a week now. So far we haven’t seen any avalanches on this layer at the Pass. However, because of the weak structure, it’s worth keeping on your radar. You can find a layer of sugary facets sandwiched between two crusts at the base of the recent snow (12-18”) on shaded slopes. Snowpack tests on these persistent grains have been inconsistent. On more sunny aspects, this facet-crust combo is generally absent and you’ll find a very firm and thick layer of spring-like snow. Below these interfaces, a very strong and well-settled snowpack exists. Right now, we aren’t tracking any layers deeper in the snow.