Avalanche forecast

West 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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Highlights

You could still trigger pockets of wind-loaded snow from Thursday’s storm. Unfortunately, shifting winds might make figuring out exactly where these slabs exist a bit tricky. Look for sharp cornices and textured surfaces to point out steep wind-affected slopes you want to avoid.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    Thursday’s storm likely built new wind slabs on a variety of aspects. Shifting winds could make it harder to quickly identify possibly wind-loaded features. Look for sharp cornices, textured surfaces, and drifts behind trees/rocks. These clues point towards wind-loaded terrain and can help you anticipate potential wind slabs. You’ll commonly find wind-affected snow near ridgelines, on exposed features, along the base of cliffs, and in rock-walled gullies.

    On Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier, and Mt Adams significant new snow may allow some of these slabs to grow large enough to bury you. Closer to the Cascade crest, expect avalanches to be relatively shallow and small. However, given the early season snowpack, any avalanche can kill you if it carries you into exposed obstacles like rocks, cliffs, or trees.

    (12/8/2022)

    A small shallow human triggered wind slab in the Crystal Mt backcountry. You could find these pockets of wind drifted snow in a variety of locations 

    Photo: Shane Robinson

Avalanche Discussion

Snow showers should linger around the West South zone Friday and could bring an additional 3-6 inches of snow to some locations by late in the day. You’ll likely see the most snow on Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier, with slightly lesser amounts at Mt Adams, Crystal Mt, and White Pass. So far, (as of 4pm) storm totals from Thursday range from 6-8 inches on the volcanoes to 3-6 inches closer to the crest. While modest by Cascade standards, sustained moderate to strong winds easily transported this snow forming much deeper drifts. Friday afternoon, strengthening winds should once again start to blow the snow around. However, this likely won’t affect the avalanche danger until more snow falls with the next storm. 

Despite the more variable early season conditions, the snowpack around the West South zone appears well settled and strong. You may still find storm snow interfaces and crusts from earlier in the season, but there are no major layers of concern. Weak facets observed near the prominent 11/22 crust produced a few avalanches during control work at Crystal Mt last week. However, we still haven’t seen a single backcountry avalanche on this layer in this zone. While we can’t rule it out, observations suggest this would be a very rare possibility. The common theme for all of these avalanches were: higher elevation (>6000ft), rocky, northerly terrain. 

Despite the fact it may feel like mid winter, the snowpack is still shallow and plenty of obstacles still exist to ruin your season. Watch for open creeks, holes near rocks, and shallowly buried brush.

Regions covered