Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Mon
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Limit the amount of time you spend traveling under sagging cornices, slopes with glide cracks, or blocks of snow clinging to rocks. Although unlikely, they could fail during or shortly after warm and sunny periods. Expect to find soggy travel conditions with exposed natural hazards typical of springtime.

Avalanche problems

  • Glide Cracks

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

    It appears that Snoqualmie Pass just doesn't want to cool down and lock up that wet and weak surface. That means that large and unpredictable wet avalanches could still occur. Are these your textbook-style glide avalanches? Not necessarily. While those could happen, we're talking more about blocks of snow shedding off rocky ledges or even cornices collapsing and ripping out a pocket of wet snow on the slope below. The upper snowpack is saturated due to this week's atmospheric river, unseasonably warm temperatures, and small storm parade. We haven't had a good overnight freeze in over a week. Yes, a brittle melt-freeze crust has started to form at upper elevations, but that's not enough to put this problem to bed. Liquid water continues to enter the snowpack daily, and although it should be well-suited to handle water at this point, with well-defined percolation channels, wet slides can work in mysterious ways. Often, they can even get a second life as the surface starts to stiffen up and freeze when we think the issue is done. So limit the amount of time you spend below large avalanche slopes, glide cracks, hanging blocks of snow, or sagging cornices where one of these low-likelihood, high-consequence slides could occur. 

    (3/29/2025)

    Glide cracks and blocks of snow clinging to rocks above the summer trail to Snow Lake. This snow all needs to come down at some point this spring. It may be during this warm and wet period we're in.

    Photo: Tom Vogl

Avalanche Discussion

Observations indicate that Saturday was very similar to Friday. A few inches of moist, new snow fell that later failed as small, wet loose avalanches. They ran on a breakable crust at the base of the storm snow. Sounds a lot like springtime. On Sunday, you could see more wet loose avalanche activity in the recent storm snow as temperatures and sunshine increase. However, strong easterly winds and increasing cloud cover will compete to alter the snow surface and may keep wet loose slides in check. If there's any dry snow left out there, winds will certainly be strong enough to drift it around into shallow slabs. 

Overall, it's been a wet and warm week, which has left us with a generally moist and weak snowpack. A few snow showers have added up to 6-8 inches at upper elevations. As mentioned above, the snow has been moist and shed most days due to diurnal warming destabilizing it. Lower elevations have received a significant amount of rain, and the snowpack is saturated to the ground. Debris piles are widespread, as are open creeks, holes, and patches of bare ground or rock. Allow yourself extra time to navigate these hazards. 

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