Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

A major east wind event is ready to strike Snoqualmie Pass. Wind slabs could develop on atypical aspects or lower on slopes than you're used to. Looking for visual clues, such as actively blowing snow, fresh cornices, or new pillow-like drifts, can help you identify wind-loaded areas to avoid.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    The problem and likelihood of this forecast remain the same as on Friday, but Saturday will be a very different day. With east wind events, you can expect to find slabs forming on atypical aspects or lower in the terrain than you are used to. This storm will be arriving on a warming trend, meaning the snow will be heavier than what has fallen most of the week. These two factors combined should result in slab development over the weak, low-density snow currently on the surface.

    Using small test slopes or quick handpits can help you identify heavy snow over weaker snow and how it may be reacting to your weight as a traveler. Visual clues such as fresh cornices, drifts behind objects, or actively blowing snow can indicate wind-loaded slopes to avoid. 

    In some areas, slabs could step down to older layers of the snowpack, breaking widely and running on a crust. If you think a feature is wind-loaded or see unusual avalanche activity, default to lower-angled terrain.

    (2/20/2026)

    Visual clues of wind loading can help you identify where wind slabs may be lurking on Saturday.

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

Avalanche potential will be on an upward trend throughout the weekend as a series of storms roll through Snoqualmie Pass. First, we'll have to deal with strong east-southeast winds, snow, and rising temperatures. Eventually, we may see a shift to rain at lower elevations and continued snowfall at higher elevations.

Whether by wind or heavy snowfall, any slab that develops will rest over a weak upper snowpack. Most of the week, the snow above the 2/7 crust has been light and fluffy, resulting in minimal reported avalanche activity. This crust is roughly 1-1.5 feet below the surface, and contains weak, faceted snow above it. All avalanche activity should be confined to the snow above this interface. On shaded slopes, you may find another interface of buried surface hoar and near-surface facets, the 2/13. This layer is a bit more spotty, but is generally 4-5 inches above the 2/7.

Needless to say, this is not your typical Pacific Northwest snowpack structure, so you shouldn't treat it as such. Don't roll out your typical playbook and expect that everything will be fine. Tune your senses into what the upper snowpack and weather are telling you wherever you're recreating and then choose appropriate terrain based on those observations. If these weak layers come to life either through smaller avalanches or additional loading, they could fail in surprising ways, such as breaking widely or failing above you. Whether these layers come to life on Saturday is a major question, but it seems likely that we'll have an avalanche cycle on them at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Most low-elevation terrain lacks the snowpack and general exposure to wind to pose much avalanche hazard on Saturday. At all elevations, travel hazards are still a challenge. Open creeks, holes, and shallowly buried rocks and stumps are widespread throughout the mountains. Some of these hazards were easy to identify last week, but are now hidden under a few inches of new snow.

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