Avalanche forecast

East Slopes North

Northwest Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 2 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

The sun and warm temperatures will make it easy to trigger wet avalanches on most slopes. Check how much the snow freezes overnight, and move to lower-angle terrain when surfaces become wet and weak. Manage overhead hazards by limiting your time under steep, sunny slopes and cornices. 

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

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

    As the snowpack becomes wet and weak, you could encounter both triggered and natural wet avalanches. Avalanches will start on east aspects early in the day and show up on westerly aspects later. Cornices and large chunks of snow shedding off rock features could trigger avalanches that gouge deeper into the snowpack. If you start seeing rollerballs or natural avalanches, it's time to move to lower-angle or more shaded terrain.

    With all these springtime avalanches, it’s about paying attention to what’s above you. Look for ways to minimize being under very steep, rocky features and cornices.

    (4/10/2024)

    Small wet loose debris on an ENE aspect at 5000', West Craggy Peak.

    Photo: Willie Webster

Avalanche Discussion

Dynamic spring conditions can be tricky, and often, the snowpack changes quickly. Give yourself lots of options to adjust to the conditions. If you travel near and above 7,000 feet near the Cascade crest, watch for recent wind-drifted slabs. They should be difficult to trigger at this point, but we have little information from these areas.

There may still be recent snow available for wet avalanches. Up to 1 foot of snow accumulated by the morning of the 9th near Washington Pass. Considerably less fell further east. Sunshine and warm temperatures moistened the recent snow this week. On the 11th, WSDOT forecasters reported a small natural wet avalanche on Highway 20 below the Liberty Bell formation. On the 10th, an observer traveled in the Eight-Mile drainage in the vicinity of the Craggy Peaks. He saw fresh and recent wet avalanches in snow over the early April crust. The crust was 4-6 inches below the surface.

Current snowpack considerations are we’re mainly focused on the recent snow over the Early April Crust. The depth varies greatly by location, aspect, and elevation, but it’s often the first significant firm layer below any recent snow and only a couple of inches below the last storm interface. You can still identify other older interfaces/layers in the snowpack in higher elevation, shaded terrain. We haven’t seen any avalanches on these layers in quite some time. Major warming events in the future could produce wet avalanches above the early February crust deeper in the snowpack.

Regions covered