Avalanche forecast

East Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Triggering a surprising and dangerous slab avalanche remains a possibility, especially in terrain that has been wind affected. You probably won't get warning signs before it happens. You can reduce your risk by choosing more sheltered terrain or smaller, simpler slopes.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

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

    You can find buried weak layers 1-3 feet down that show some signs of healing, but we can't say for sure with much confidence, given the lack of data. Instead, focus on wind and warmth maintaining the likelihood of this problem. The most likely place you'd trigger a slide is in exposed wind-loaded terrain, and weak layers can be buried even deeper here, too. Recent very small wind slabs could be lingering in these areas as well, but only immediately adjacent to the Cascade Crest. By the afternoon, a bit of rain along the Crest could reach middle elevation terrain. It's unlikely, but if water works its way down to buried weak layers, this could reinvigorate instability by the end of the day.

    We have very limited data for the zone, which creates sizeable uncertainty around an already tricky problem to manage in the backcountry. If you plan to travel near a neighboring forecast zone, consider reading that forecast as well to equip your toolbelt with more information. Either way, ease into terrain slowly. You may or may not get clear feedback from the snowpack before triggering a large slide.

    (3/1/2026)

    Snow machine triggered large (D2) persistent slab and self extricated on 2/28. Darland Mt. NE aspect, 6700 ft.

    HS- AMu-R2-D2-O @ NE, 6700' Photo: Northwest Avalanche Center

Avalanche Discussion

An NWAC forecaster traveled to the Pinegrass Ridge area on Wednesday and observed 1–2 inches of new snow and a thin, breakable crust on sun-exposed slopes. They identified the 2/13 buried surface hoar and 2/7 facet/crust complex about 2 feet below the surface that produced propagating test results on west aspects. On southerly aspects, they found these weak layers gaining strength. The last (and only) known persistent slab avalanches that failed in the East South occurred on February 28th around Darland Mountain. These avalanches broke up to two feet deep and failed on the 2/13 buried surface hoar. 

With freezing levels reaching 6000 ft by the end of the day, any precipitation falling below that will fall as rain. Small wet loose avalanches could become possible. If you're punching deeply through wet, heavy snow, steer around very steep terrain where you could be knocked off your feet and carried into terrain traps below.

It is difficult to produce accurate avalanche forecasts without community support. Please let us know what you're seeing out there.

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