West Slopes Central

Mountain travel still presents plenty of hazards even though avalanche danger is isolated.  Keep an eye out for fresh slabs of wind-drifted snow if heading up into the alpine. Look out for wet snow avalanches like cornice fall, glide, or snow shedding from cliffs at low and mid-elevations. The decrease in snow cover has made getting around the mountains more complicated with lots of open water and other hazards at or near the snow surface.

The avalanche danger is Low, but there are always a few places where you can find greater danger. Fresh snow has accumulated at the highest elevations and may have formed small wind drifts. Evaluate wind slab depth and bonding before heading into exposed terrain.

Glide avalanches, cornice fall, and snow shedding of cliffs and rocky terrain are still a thing given continued warm, wet conditions at low and mid elevations. Keep track of what is overhead, and don’t linger under questionable, precarious-looking snow features 

The amount of snow lost in the North Cascades in the past few weeks is startling. Significant snow cover can still be found starting at 4000’ to 5000’ depending on slope aspect and location. But much of the snow is just gone below those elevations. In appearance, the mountains look more like they do in mid-May than early February.

White Chuck went from a peak snow depth of 86” on January 17th down to 62” as of Friday afternoon. The primary culprits were well above-freezing temperatures combined with 3-6” of rain in the last week. Other forecast zones neighboring West Central experienced similar conditions and loss of snowpack.

In general, off-trail mountain travel is a bit difficult with lots of open creeks and lakes and other exposed objects exhumed from the snowpack by heavy rain. Where snow cover is more consistent, thick, chunky avalanche debris is found below most steep slopes from a widespread natural avalanche cycle on Jan 27-28.