Avalanche forecast

Stevens Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 3 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Expect natural wet avalanches as snow surfaces get warm and wet. Give yourself options to move to lower-angle or shadier slopes to avoid triggering wet slides. You may still be able to trigger small wind slab avalanches on steep leeward slopes at upper elevations.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

    Expect more sun and warmer temperatures than the last couple of days. Wet avalanches may be easy to trigger and could occur naturally. If the surface snow starts getting moist or you see rollerballs, expect wet avalanches could follow. Avalanches should mostly be small as frozen crusts lie just under the surface of many sunny slopes. Build options into your travel plan to stick to shadier or lower-angle to avoid wet avalanches. Time your trip to be off of slopes before the sun makes the surface wet and weak.

    (3/25/2023)

    This wet slide continued for another 300-400ft below the trees. Union Peak, S 4,700ft

    Photo: Public obs

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

     Wind slab avalanche are becoming dificult to trigger, but could still be a concern above treeline.  Look for signs of instability like shooting cracks in the snow. Feel for stiffer drifts of snow or textured surfaces. Steer around drifted pillows of snow on leeward sides of ridges and slopes steeper than 35°. Wind loaded pockets of snow formed Friday night into Saturday. On Saturday, avalanche professionals were able to trigger slides up to 1 foot deep in areas of wind-drifted snow.

    Wind slabs like this could fail on steep slopes. This is a good example of a small test slope used to safely determine how easily you can trigger wind drifted slabs of snow. 

    Photo: Irene Henninger

Avalanche Discussion

About 7" of snow accumulated and drifted up to 1 foot on Friday into Saturday. On southerly slopes, the recent snow could slide on a crust, just beneath the surface. These slopes have begun to transition to a spring, melt-freeze snowpack. The snowpack on northerly aspects may have thin crusts in places, but remains mostly dry and winter-like.

Last week we saw themost significant period of warm temperatures of this spring. That said, snow and avalanche conditions are still very winter-like, especially considering that April is around the corner. Observers have reported occasional glide cracks and plenty of wet avalanches. On Friday, the weather switched back to winter with another shot of cold dry snow. Snow totals are about 1 foot since last weeks warm-up.

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