Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

Fresh wind slabs will form today as strong west winds drift a few inches of new snow. Avoid steep slopes actively accumulating wind-drifted snow. Lingering deeper weak layers mean avalanches could break wider and run farther than expected.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    Strong west winds and 2–6 inches of new snow should build a round of fresh but generally small wind slabs. The distribution of slabs can be erratic with west winds, so don’t assume you’re in the clear if you find calm conditions where you start the day.

    Active wind loading could produce a natural avalanche or two at upper elevations. The greatest risk may be that a small wind slab avalanche could trigger a larger slab that releases in deeper, weaker layers. This is a worst-case scenario, but it happens often enough that it should stay in the back of your mind, especially in areas seeing intense wind loading and rapid slab formation.

    (2/22/2024)

    Visual clues of wind loading along ridgelines. These highs help us anticipate where wind slabs may exist. 

    Photo: Dallas Glass

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    2–3

    Persistent slab avalanches can be large, break wide across terrain features, and be triggered from a distance. With a high-consequence problem like this, it’s best to avoid large, open, steep terrain—especially along ridgelines and in drainages where snowpacks are thinner or more variable. Persistent slab avalanches have been reported in zones surrounding West Central, so it’s worth treating similar terrain here with suspicion even without recent local activity.

    Give big open slopes plenty of space and stay well back from cornices—they can fail unexpectedly and trigger large avalanches on the slopes below. A recent observation showed a smaller wet avalanche stepping down into older, drier layers, suggesting recent loading may have reawakened this problem in places as well.

    (3/1/2026)

    A large, snowmobile-triggered avalanche in the Canyon Creek/West North. This likely occurred on a persistent layer, based on the wide propagation and nearby snowpit data.

Avalanche Discussion

Warm and wet conditions have been the name of the game the last few days. Weather stations around West Central have seen anywhere from 2 inches of precipitation above the western foothills at the Alpine Meadows and Skookum SNOTELs, to a half-inch at weather stations along the crest of the Cascades like Lyman Lake and Park Creek Ridge. Much of that fell as rain at low elevations and very wet snow at mid elevations, with about four inches of wet new snow reported above 5000 feet at Stevens Pass, Alpental, and the Mount Baker Ski Area. Winds were light and temperatures were warm

After three days of sunny skies and powder, the wet weather has kept many out of the mountains and limited the number of field observations in neighboring zones. The most notable observation came from avalanche control work in West North, where a smaller wet avalanche triggered a slab that stepped down into a deeper layer. Given the amount of rain and wet snow, expect to see a fair bit of wet avalanche debris in the coming days as temperatures cool and a bit of dry new snow lures folks back into the mountains.

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