Avalanche forecast

West Slopes North

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Fresh wind slabs will form today as strong west winds drift a few inches of new snow. Avoid steep slopes actively accumulating wind-drifted snow. Lingering deeper weak layers mean avalanches could break wider and run farther than expected.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–2

    Strong west winds and 2–6 inches of new snow should build a round of fresh but generally small wind slabs. The distribution of slabs can be erratic with west winds, so don’t assume you’re in the clear if you find calm conditions where you start the day.

    Active wind loading could produce a natural avalanche or two at upper elevations. The greatest risk may be that a small wind slab avalanche could trigger a larger slab that releases in deeper, weaker layers. This is a worst-case scenario, but it happens often enough that it should stay in the back of your mind, especially in areas seeing intense wind loading and rapid slab formation.

    (2/22/2024)

    Visual clues of wind loading along ridgelines. These highs help us anticipate where wind slabs may exist. 

    Photo: Dallas Glass

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2–3

    Persistent slab avalanches can be large, break wide across terrain features, and be triggered from a distance. With a high-consequence problem like this, it’s best to avoid large, open, steep terrain—especially in drainages and along ridgelines where slabs have been triggered in the past week, such as Excelsior Ridge in Canyon Creek. Other areas that typically see less new snow, like in or near North Cascades NP, or along the Canadian Border, are also suspect. 

    Give big open slopes plenty of space in these areas and stay well back from cornices—they can fail unexpectedly and trigger large avalanches on the slopes below. A recent observation near Heather Meadows showed a smaller wet avalanche stepping down into older, drier layers, suggesting recent loading may have reawakened this problem in other areas as well.

    (3/1/2026)

    A large, snowmobile-triggered avalanche in the Canyon Creek. This likely occurred on a persistent layer, based on the wide propagation and nearby snowpit data.

Avalanche Discussion

Warm and wet conditions have been the name of the game the last few days. Heather Meadows picked up nearly 3 inches of precipitation in the last 48 hours, with much of that falling as rain at low elevations and very wet snow at mid elevations. After three days of sunny skies and powder, the wet weather has kept many out of the mountains and limited the number of field observations.

The most notable observation came from avalanche control work on Tuesday, where a smaller wet avalanche triggered a slab that stepped down into a deeper layer. Given the amount of rain and wet snow in the Baker Backcountry and surrounding areas, expect to see a fair bit of wet avalanche debris in the coming days as temperatures cool and a bit of dry new snow lures folks back into the mountains.

Regions covered