West Slopes South

A well-settled and strong snowpack will maintain generally safe avalanche conditions. Instead, you'll need to manage a wide variety of snow surfaces. Make sure to add a bit of time to your day to deal with the variable travel. 

The West South zone could become two different worlds on Monday depending on how close you are to the Cascade Crest. Ultimately, whether you’re out by Mt Saint Helens or over by Crystal Mt and Government Meadows, we don’t expect any avalanche issues. 

Close to the Crest: Easterly winds will push colder air into locations near and just west of the Crest. It could be downright frigid to start the day. As clouds increase, don’t expect surfaces to soften on steep southerly slopes. In these locations,  after a sunny start, it could feel like a very cold wintery day. 

Western Parts of the Zone: If you’re around Mt Saint Helens, Mt Rainier, or locales in between, much warmer air will push into the mountains. So, while it’s chilly to start, temperatures should rise. You could see thermometers top 32 degrees, even up to 8000ft. For the snow surface to soften it will be all about the sky. Increasing clouds could put an end to any spring-like snow before it begins. Or, if the clouds arrive later, you might experience softer wet snow. It’s unlikely the surface will weaken so much that it turns into a concern. However, if the wet snow gets deeper than your ankle, move on to less sloppy snow. 

Travel conditions continue to garner the most attention. In the open terrain, smooth, all be it variable, travel seems to be the norm. Pockets of soft snow intersperse with breakable crust and icy slopes. At lower elevations and in the trees, travel is rugged over frozen irregular surfaces. It takes more time than usual to move safely across all these different slopes. 

On Mt Hood, “slide for life” conditions have been reported, where a simple slip can turn into an uncontrolled fall. You may experience similar scary, icy slopes on the volcanoes. 

At the moment, there’s not much concern below the snow surface. We’re focused on the surface and the couple of inches of softer snow over the 1/10 crust. Sparkly near surface facets and surface hoar have been widely reported over the last several days. It’s worth keeping an eye on these weak grains as we await our next storm.