Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

As the sun comes out and temperatures rise, you might encounter a variety of wet springtime avalanches. You may trigger slides on steep slopes with more than a few inches of wet , sticky snow. However, any natural avalanche activity should be isolated near and below rocky terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

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

    There are two separate wet avalanche processes at play on Friday. The first involves the surface snow over the Early April Crust. The snow should soften and become wet and weak as things heat up. You’re most likely to trigger a loose avalanche where you find wet snow deeper than your ankle. These slides should be generally small, but can easily carry you over a cliff or into a creek. In the past few days, many small natural and human triggered avalanches involved this recent snow. However, a few more could still fall down, particularly on the more shaded aspects. 

    The other process involves the entire snowpack transitioning to spring. These slides are less likely but more consequential. They involve glides, cornices, wet slabs, and gouging wet loose avalanches. These shed-style events are very hard to predict and can occur with very little warning. They’re most common in big rocky terrain regardless of aspect and elevation. Look for routes that help limit your exposure to overhead hazards. If you start seeing larger slides, get away from similar terrain.

    (4/7/2024)

    This large natural shed avalanche occurred during a period of filtered sunshine earlier this week. It released from steep rocky terrain. 

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

Friday will be the start of several warm spring days. Sure, the weather feels like spring, but the snowpack hasn’t quite made the change. It’s still relatively cold, dry, and layered on more shaded aspects above about 4000ft. Predicting if and when any larger natural spring-shed avalanches will occur is nearly impossible. They often don’t completely correspond to the time of day. 

Since this is the start of the warm-up, conditions should be safer in the morning. Colder temperatures and clouds can limit the hazard. It won’t need to go “blue-bird” for that to change. Filtered sunshine and warming temperatures could cause the danger to rise quickly. 

At lower elevations, the snowpack has been through a lot over the past month. It’s largely changed over to spring and is thinning quickly. Other than a rouge shedding block of snow, there isn’t much avalanche hazard. As you ascend, the snowpack becomes much more aspect dependent. E-S-W slopes have seen the full brunt of the sun this week. Any recent snow likely contains multiple crusts, or it may be integrated into the Early April Layer. On more shaded slopes, dry, settled snow continues to hang on. If you head to the tops of the higher peaks, you’ll probably find wind-affected snow. However, wind slabs have generally become unreactive. Even still, don’t ignore an obvious pillow-like slab sitting in high-consequence terrain. 

Other spring-time hazards continue to make travel a bit sportier than normal. Open creeks, holes, thin coverage, and exposed obstacle are common, especially below 4000ft and on southerly aspects.

Regions covered