Avalanche forecast

Stevens Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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

Easterly winds will increase during the day, creating reactive to touchy wind slabs. Expect to find these in open, exposed terrain as the day progresses. Avoid heavily loaded steep features, especially if finding shooting cracks or you observe continuous wind drifting.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    Up until now, most places held deep, cohesionless powder. The weather setup is creating easterly winds that will speed up as they flow through passes, gaps, and valleys crossing the Cascades. Look and feel for signs of drifting such as pillowed snow, cornices, and sculpted features near ridgelines, especially in exposed alpine terrain. If you see heavy wind drifting, avoid steep features nearby. You can also use small test slopes and snowpack tests to determine if the new snow is cohesive or if it could break as a slab. 

    The potential for triggering deeper, surprising avalanches on older layers of crusts and facets could increase in areas that experience heavy loading. This 'sleeping dragon' will be worth considering as this wind event cranks up. Large, steep slopes that face NW-NE above 4,700ft may be the most likely places to trigger this deeper weak layer. If triggered, the crown could be 3-6ft deep and the resulting avalanche could be quite large. Heed signs of danger such as shooting cracks, loud audible whumphs, and pay attention to signs of recent avalanches as you travel in this relatively young snowpack 

    (11/23/2022)

    Small wind slab near a ridge line at Stevens Pass. East aspect at 5000ft.

    Photo: Katie Warren

Avalanche Discussion

This week, Stevens Pass picked up about 2 feet of snow with only around 1.6" of water. The snow is deep and low density, but has begun to settle out some. Expect winds to increase as Saturday progresses and the low-density snow may easily drift. Avalanche conditions are likely to worsen into the overnight hours because of this wind event. Conditions could become more dangerous earlier, so keep your wits about you. Observers reported triggering a small wind slab avalanche on the north side of Lichtenberg on Thursday. Small loose avalanche smay also run on very steep slopes. With the deep snow in mind, make sure to stay within earshot or visual of partners. Tree wells are open, so with this in mind, make sure to stay within visual or easrshot of your partners. It's still early season, and the snowpack may be hiding sharks and stumps to get injured by.

Layers of weak snow and slick crusts were buried by a series of storms in mid to late November. The type of snow this layer can be found as is variable in nature within the zone. Some observations report finding it as weak, faceted grains near the ground, while others found it as stronger snow or melt forms. It generally has not been a problem for avalanches in this zone (but is in the East Central) since their initial burial. However, because of the persistent nature of faceted grains, professionals continue to closely monitor this as more and more snow piles up on it. 

Let us know what you see by submitting an observation!

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