Central Cascades

Avalanches remain unlikely on Saturday in the Central Cascades. It's now been over two weeks since any new snow, resulting in a very settled snowpack, with no recent avalanche activity observed in our zone. Low danger doesn't mean no danger, though. It is always prudent to carry avalanche rescue gear and use safe travel techniques, such as limiting exposure in avalanche terrain to one rider at a time.

On Friday, I went searching in the Todd Ridge zone to see if I could find any slopes harboring consistent, cold, dry snow on below treeline terrain. While I was able to find pockets of soft snow on shaded open slopes, I can't quite say anything was too consistent. Surface snow conditions appear to be getting more variable by the day, and even shaded slopes in moderate tree cover have mostly firm and textured surface conditions. But, there are definitely still some pockets out there where soft turns can be enjoyed on smooth cold surface snow, and with Saturday's warm up I would anticipate mid to lower elevations re-entering the corn cycle on solar slopes after a couple cooler days. If you do go seeking sun softened corn snow, be sure to carry proper equipment on the ascent to prevent a long sliding fall on icey slopes. And if you go out for a ride or poke around in the snow this weekend, make sure to submit a public observation on our website with what you find!