Avalanche forecast

East Slopes North

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Wed
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Light snow will continue with southwest wind. You can trigger avalanches in the recent snow and they may be big enough to bury you at upper elevations. Avoid steep slopes if you see shooting cracks, recent avalanches, or test slopes that slide easily.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    Consider avoiding terrain 35 degrees and steeper, especially on leeward slopes near and above treeline. It will be easy to trigger large avalanches at upper elevations. Keep your distance from wind-loaded slopes with thick pillows of snow or wind features. You may still be able to trigger avalanches in wind-sheltered terrain and below treeline. Steer around convexities and unsupported features, where you are more likely to trigger a slide. Use quick tests before committing to steep slopes or larger pieces of terrain. Look for signs of instability such as recent slab avalanches, shooting cracks, or whumphing collapses.

    Example storm slab from last week.

    Photo: Stephen Semanski

Avalanche Discussion

An observer in the Sage Hills on Monday reported about 9" of new snow. Closer to the top of Washington Pass, observers reported about 18" since the 2nd. They found tests failing on the new/old interface, but couldn't trigger small test slopes. They reported significant blowing snow at ridgetops and no new avalanches with good visibility into Cutthroat creek, Liberty Bell, and Delancey ridge areas.

Cold temperatures in the last week of December created weak and faceted surfaces (see video below for an example from the East Central zone). Interfaces buried on December 29th and January 2nd are within the top 2-3 feet of the snowpack near the Cascade Crest and closer to 1-2 feet deep further east. These could still be weak layers for triggered avalanches. The interface that was buried around the solstice is about 3-4 feet below the surface. Observers reported finding surface hoar as well as a thin sun crust on steeper S-SW slopes at this interface.  While no recent avalanche activity has been observed down to these layers in this zone yet, further west in the Mt Baker backcountry, a deep persistent slab (up to 5' deep) occurred sometime on 12/31 on surface hoar buried above the solstice crust.  With a potent storm on the way later in the week, keep these layers in mind.

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