Mount Shasta

Your odds of triggering an avalanche throughout the forecast area are low. The primary threat is slick and firm surfaces that could send travelers for a long, uncontrollable slide-for-life. Warming temperatures will increase the risk of overhead ice and rock fall. Mountaineering tools (ice axe, crampons, and helmet) are essential for safely navigating and protecting yourself against these factors. 

It's been over three long weeks since the forecast zone last received precipitation. This drought has left much of the alpine terrain encased in a hard armor of snow and ice. While these conditions don't pose much risk of avalanches, they do pose a risk of a slip and fall in steep terrain and challenging travel conditions. Slick and firm surfaces exist near ridgelines, knolls, and moraine features, or on any slope exhibiting a firm surface. Heightened consequences exist for slopes with exposed obstacles. Arresting a fall may not be possible. 

Come thoroughly prepared with an ice axe (or two), crampons, and helmet, if planning to engage with the alpine. Rising temperatures may increase the overhead hazard of rock and ice fall. Large rock outcroppings like Casaval Ridge, the Red Banks, Sargents Ridge, and the Trinity Chutes, are features to be most heads-up about. For more information on climbing, read the updated climbing advisory. 

Although surface conditions remain variable, with boilerplate, breakable crusts, and wind board, softening melt-freeze snow does exist and is becoming more prevalent near and above treeline on protected slopes that receive strong solar input.

Whether out and about for a personal well-being tour, or trying to achieve a more technical goal, always monitor the snowpack and terrain for signs of instability.