Avalanche forecast

West Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago.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

Each day's snow totals aren’t that impressive, but they’re starting to add up. You may trigger an avalanche in the recent snow, particularly on very steep slopes, near convex rollover, and in wind loaded terrain. Some slides might fail easily or run far on crusts in the upper snowpack.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    These recent storms haven’t been big, but they’ve been big enough. On Monday, you may find 8-14 inches of snow over the 2/13 interface (when the storms began). You may trigger shallow soft slabs on convex rollovers, loose slides in very steep terrain, or deeper wind loaded pockets. Overall, we expect avalanches to be fairly small, but large enough to knock you off your feet or push you around. 

    In cases like this, it's as much about the consequences of the terrain as the size of the slide. Be particularly leery of the new snow when traveling above cliffs, deep gullies, or other high consequence areas. 

    Avalanches could fail on subtle interstorm layers, or they might release on the 2/13 interface. Buried surface hoar and facets have been observed at Paradise, Crystal, and White Pass. These persistent grains may or may not result in avalanches, but if they do, they could trigger easily or possibly break widely. Many recent slides from this weekend failed in the new snow, then ran on older crust just below.

    (2/14/2026)

    The dull gray line is indicative of buried surface hoar. NE, 6400ft, White Pass backcountry.

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

Another day, another couple of inches of snow… Seems like each day we add another 2-4 inches to the storm totals, and Monday looks to follow the same theme. This shouldn’t do much to sway the avalanche danger in either direction. 

Despite the fact that persistent weak grains have been observed around the West South zone, they haven’t resulted in any significant avalanches. At least not that we know of. Maybe this trickle or snow each day will slowly incrementally load the weaklayer past its breaking point, or maybe it will allow it the time to heal. It’s hard to say. Quick hand pits, shovel tilt, and uptrack tests are great ways to look for these potential weak grains. 

Southerly Aspects: On sunny slopes, the 2/13 is a stout melt freeze crust that may or may not have surface hoar and/or facets resting above it. The recent snow is often slightly heavier on these aspects, especially if the sun poked out for any length of time this weekend. The 2/7 crust sits slightly deeper in the snowpack, but is often distinguishable from the 2/13. 

Northly Aspects: Twelve to eighteen inches of soft dry snow sits over the first major crust (2/7) in shaded terrain. Hiding among this upper snowpack is the 2/13 weak layer and possible subtle interstorm crusts just above the 2/7. Avalanches could break or run on any one of these layers down to the more robust 2/7 crust. 

The return to winter has been welcomed over the past few days! Reports of good travel conditions, particularly on shaded aspects, continue to roll in. However, these modest storms didn’t do much for coverage. Often, a few inches of snow cover bare ground or rocks. Hazards like creeks, holes, and exposed obstacles often turn common travel routes into wandering, circuitous travel.

Regions covered