Snoqualmie Pass

Cooler temperatures and more clouds should help keep the snowpack locked up and the avalanche danger to a minimum. Instead, prepare to deal with challenging and possibly icy travel conditions. 

A subtle shift in the weather should help reduce the risk of avalanches even further on Thursday. Cooler temperatures and generally thin clouds will combine with the stronger temperature inversions and possible Pass level fog to minimize any softening of the snow surface. If the clouds are thin enough, you might see steep southerly slopes soften at higher elevations. 

For the past week, we’ve been managing natural glide avalanches. These slides are nearly impossible to predict. Thursday’s colder weather won’t make them immediately turn off. However, the combination of a cooling trend and  four days without a reported avalanche gives us some confidence that this problem has become very unlikely. It seems like, at most, you may see a small chunk of snow finally give way from a rocky face or corniced ridge after over a week of above freezing temperatures. 

The main danger will be travel conditions. Near and east of the Pass, terrain below 4500ft has been locked in an ice age of strong temperature inversions and fog. This has helped preserve the thin snowpacks in these areas, but it’s also created quite the skating rink. Higher in the terrain, you’ll also find firm, potentially icy slopes, due to repeated melt-freeze cycles. Then there are the obstacles: rocks, holes, dirt, logs, trees, bushes, creeks… Unfortunately, we just haven’t been able to put these ‘early season’ travel hazards to bed. Plan for extra time for even common travel routes.