Avalanche forecast

East Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 4 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

You may have to navigate around a fresh batch of shallow wind slabs at mid and upper elevations on Friday. Look for pillow-like slabs or fresh cornices to help you identify slopes of concern. As skies clear, expect small wet avalanches to soon follow on steep sunny slopes.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    Light snow accumulations and moderate SW winds may create a fresh crop of shallow wind slabs near and above treeline. These won’t be large, but could be consequential in the wrong terrain, especially combined with a terrain trap.  The older wind slabs that formed on 2/7 show signs of healing and are becoming more stubborn to trigger at middle elevations. However, as you move higher in elevation (above 7000 ft), you may still find some lingering sensitive slabs. 

    You’ll find these slabs lurking in all the usual spots, but specifically under cornices, on the lee-side of ridges, and on convex rolls in the alpine.  As winds taper through the day, it may be hard to visually identify blowing snow and chances are the new wind slabs will have already formed. So it will be up to you to look for these pillow-like slabs and use ridges or more sheltered terrain to reduce your exposure to this problem. 

     

    (1/22/2023)

    You may notice shallow instabilties like this on Friday. Look for wind-stiffened snow, cracking,  or snow sliding easily to help you idenitfy areas of concern. 

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

    Once the sun makes an appearance, snow surfaces could get wet and weak on SW-S-SE facing slopes.  Look for pinwheels or rollerballs initiating on sunny slopes as the day progresses. These are often precursors of wet loose avalanches and should be signs for you to move to more shaded aspects. These wet loose slides will likely be small, but could entrain a bit of snow at mid elevations where the most dry snow currently exists. 

    (12/3/2022)

    Rollerballs like this are signs showing that the snow surface is becoming wet and weak. 

    Photo: Zack McGill- Cascade Mtn Ascents

Avalanche Discussion

I traveled into the Ahtanum Meadows area on Wednesday and observed 10-12 inches of new storm snow from the evening of 2/7. We generally found a favorable upper snowpack structure and minimal signs of instability as we traveled. Near ridgetop we did observe signs of recent wind-loading, however, these slabs appeared stubborn on test slopes.

The MLK crust remains a prominent marker in the upper snowpack. Generally we found this layer to be 1-2’ below the snow surface. We still found some weak snow associated with the crust, however, this layer did not show the ability to propagate in snowpack tests in the location we were.  Unsurprisingly, we found the weakest snow (rounding facets) on shaded aspects (NW-N NE) above 6500 ft. Overall, we found great riding conditions and a fairly strong upper snowpack. You can check out our full observation here. 

If you get out into the East-South, please let us know what you see by submitting a public observation!

 

Regions covered