West Slopes South

Ring in the New Year with a lovely sparkly snow surface and generally safe avalanche conditions. Even still, use good travel techniques, like only exposing one person at a time to any avalanche slope.

Happy New Year from our team at NWAC!

A cool and partly sunny day should help provide a generally stable snowpack and all but eliminate avalanche concerns. 

If you head up above 7000ft or so, you may find a few wind drifted pockets. These small slabs might hide under a few inches of new snow, making them hard to spot. Look for drifts and cornices to help you anticipate loaded areas. While we don’t have any observations (yet) from the upper elevations in the zone, just to the south, on Mt Hood, an avalanche professional found 10-12in drifts. You might see something similar on Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, or Mt Rainier. 

On Sunday, very small rollerballs released in the few inches of new snow. They were mainly around south-facing rocky areas. You may see a few more on Monday or be able to push very small loose slides if the sun warms the surface. In both cases, avalanches should be very isolated and small, but given the “low-tide” conditions, even a tiny slide could take you for a very unforgiving ride. 

This recent storm brought about 0.25-0.5in of water to the zone. At our mid-elevation weather stations, this generally resulted in 2-3in of new snow. Above 7000ft, you may find closer to 4-6in. This snow capped a new crust (12/30). Near White Pass this layer was generally supportable higher in the terrain, but became breakable below about 6000ft. 

Over the past few days, we’ve received lots of good data from near Crystal, White Pass, and Mt Rainier. In general, observations show a relatively strong and stable snowpack. Weaker layers are confined to the top few inches of snow and not generally a concern at this time. 

There is some great news this New Year's Day. Folks continue to report general good travel conditions at mid-elevations! Even still, the lack of snow and overabundance of obstacles can turn even simple routes into quite the adventure. In much of the lower elevations, coverage is so thin, travel on snow is often restricted to roads, trails, and open meadows. Let’s hope for lots of powder in 2024!