Avalanche forecast

East Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 5 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Wet avalanche concerns will linger until the snowpack fully refreezes. Limit your time spent on and under big slopes where the snowpack remains wet and unsupportable - or where you find sagging cornices or chucks of snow clinging onto cliffs. Cooling temperatures may set the stage for firm, challenging travel where snow still exists. 

Avalanche problems

  • Wet Slabs

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

    Dropping freezing levels and refreezing surfaces are slowly reducing the likelihood of triggering wet avalanches. However, wet snow remains tricky, as meltwater can still move through the snowpack in unexpected ways until colder temperatures fully lock it up. Until the upper snowpack fully drains, you could still encounter a rogue wet avalanche or chunks of snow peeling off cliffs and corniced ridgelines. Watch what’s above you and monitor the thickness of the new surface crust as you travel. If you punch past your boot tops in wet snow, the snowpack needs more time to refreeze. Until it does, minimize your exposure to slopes steeper than 35 degrees.

    (3/18/2026)

    A drone shot of natural, wet slab avalanches in the Crystal Mountain area.  These large, unpredictable slides could travel far distances and gouge into last week's storm snow.

    Photo: Crystal Mountain Pro Patrol

Avalanche Discussion

A multi-day rain event is finally coming to an end. Unsurprisingly, field observations have been sparse while rain soaked the mountains. The highest precipitation totals fell closer to the Cascade Crest, with less amounts further east in the zone. Saturday is shaping up to be a drier, colder day, so it will be a good opportunity to catalog the damage and reassess the snowpack after the recent wetting. 

While observations have been sparse during this period, the Crystal Mountain Pro Patrol just over the ridge reported triggering large wet slab avalanches during avalanche control work that failed up to 18 inches deep on Thursday, 3/19. They suspect these large wet avalanches failed on old weak layers from earlier winter. 

These types of observations are hard to overlook, especially when the snowpack is as wet and sloppy as it currently is. Wet snow is incredibly tricky to forecast and predict. Fortunately, freezing levels are forecast to drop on Friday night and Saturday, which should slowly help the snowpack firm up and gain strength. 

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