Olympics

Where there's enough snow to ride, there's enough snow to slide. Carefully assess or steer around areas where you expect new or drifted snow 6" or deeper where you can trigger a small avalanche. If caught in a slide, widespread early season obstacles could ruin your day.

It's been a warm start to the season in the Olympic Mountains and the snowpack tells the tale. Middle elevation locations near Hurricane Ridge are bare (see photo gallery) while they may hold discontinuous snow in other parts of the range. Based upon prevailing snow levels, snow coverage likely increases rapidly if you ascend from 6000 to 7000 ft. We expect that mild temperatures and rainfall on Friday moistened snow surfaces up to the highest peaks in the Olympics (freezing levels were 9800 ft at Quillayute on Friday morning).

Moving forward as temperatures cool, Friday night into Saturday, snow levels will drop to around 4000 ft. Expect light snow accumulations (up to 4") to form above moist snow or a gradually refreezing crust. Hazard will develop where winds redistribute this fresh snowfall into slabs 6" or deeper, but with limited information available, you'll need to make your own assessment of the risk. Pay careful attention to the direction of wind transport and the average snow depth in your terrain. Winds may have scoured windward slopes to bare ground, rock, or grass, but you could find continuous snow on lee slopes nearby. Small, sharp cornices can point you to the hazards in your terrain which will be focused near steep ridgelines.

Keep in mind that even where the slope looks smooth and continuous, there may be sharp rocks, downed branches, or other obstacles just under the snow surface. Ride with extra caution as a result, recognizing that your normal strategies for steering around wind-loaded pockets may not work as well in early season conditions. Early season conditions amplify the threat of the generally small avalanches we expect you might be able to trigger this weekend.

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.