Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Expect more snowfall, strong winds, and dangerous avalanche conditions, especially in the afternoon. Stick with conservative, lower-angled terrain to mitigate uncertainty about avalanche danger wherever you are traveling in the mountains. Stormy conditions should make navigating and assessing avalanche terrain quite difficult by the end of the day.

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    About 6-12" of new snow accumulated in most areas, and there is more on the way. In some neighboring zones, there were wind drifts 2-3' thick, and you could probably find similar at upper elevations in West Central. More importantly, observers to the north reported a handful of small but remotely triggered avalanches that failed in a layer of buried surface hoar. 

    You are more likely to trigger an avalanche on wind-loaded slopes but consider all steep slopes suspect until proven innocent. Don't ignore signs of instability like whumphing or shooting cracks. When in doubt, stay on slopes to low in angle to slide. Hand shears and other simple tests can help you evaluate layers near the surface, but you will need to dig down to look for surface hoar. 

    (3/10/2024)

    The crown of a remotely triggered avalanche above Upper Bagley Lake. It failed in a layer of surface hoar that was likely buried on March 8th.

    (SS-ASr-D1.5-I)

    Photo: Zack McGill

Avalanche Discussion

NWAC will be closed on Tuesday, March 12th, as we gather and grieve following the death of one of our forecasters, Matt Primomo. We will not issue regular avalanche or mountain weather forecasts on Tuesday. We will return to normal operations on Wednesday, March 13th. We appreciate the community's understanding and support during this time.

Discussion:

Sunday yielded a variety of observations depending on your location in the Cascades. Given the spread of conditions in neighboring zones, you should be ready to see just about anything depending on where you head to in West Central on Monday.

Observers in West North reported small but remotely triggered avalanches, wind-drifted snow, and generally stormy conditions for most of the day. In addition to reported avalanches in Swift Creek and Bagely Basin, avalanche control work in wind-loaded terrain produced slab avalanches to D2 in size. Another avalanche was reported from Shuksan Arm, but it’s unknown if it was natural or remotely triggered by people on the ridge above.

Warm temperatures and thick wet snow was the story at lower elevations at Snoqualmie Pass, while areas of wind drifting  and small slab avalanches were observed at higher elevations. It was quiet at Stevens, with only a few inches of new snow and no slab or loose wet avalanches reported as of Sunday afternoon. 

 

Regions covered