Avalanche forecast

East Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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Out of date — this forecast expired 2 years ago.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

Highlights

While you might trigger a small avalanche in wind affected terrain, it’s the lingering weak snowpack that makes conditions more unpredictable. Even if the chance of one of these isolated larger slides is pretty low, the consequences are not. Fortunately, there’s lots of soft safer snow in lower angle, treed, and south facing terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1.5–2

    It’s been several days since any significant new snow and the last piece of “bullseye” information (audible whumpfs). The likelihood of triggering a persistent slab is decreasing, but the probability doesn’t matter if it happens to you.

    It’s nearly impossible to say which slopes are safe and which ones are not. The only way to completely manage this problem is by avoiding steep open slopes on shaded aspects. 

    If you’re more willing to roll the dice, there are a few things to keep in mind. Avalanches will be more likely with at least a foot or more of recent snow and where settlement or wind stiffened the slab. This is more common in the western portions of the zone. You may be more likely to find the wrong spot in complex terrain full of rollovers and greater snowpack variability.

    (2/3/2025)

    Example: A skier triggered persistent slab avalanche near White Pass. This slide released over a 100ft wide and 2-3ft deep. WNW, 5600ft SS-ASu-D2-R2-O

    Photo: Dallas Glass

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

    Wind slabs don’t seem to be significantly widespread through the zone, but we’ve received observations of wind transported snow in the Salmon la Sac and Teanaway drainages. Look for textured surfaces, sharp wind-lips, or fresh drifts that indicate wind slabs could be nearby. Steer around firm pillow-like slabs along ridges or the sides of mid-slope gullies. While these slides should be relatively small, they could trigger a larger and scarier persistent slab. 

    Human triggered small, isolated wind slabs in the Blewett Pass area on Saturday. 

    Photo: Payton Schiff

Avalanche Discussion

The weather hasn’t significantly impacted the avalanche danger in several days and that’s probably not going to change on Monday. A few flurries, cold temperatures, and maybe occasionally moderate wind gusts… We’re not used to things being this quiet. A bit of sunshine might lead to loose avalanches running on very steep faces, but they should be small and not pose much hazard. 

Unfortunately, we don’t have much new information about that snowpack. The layers of concern haven’t really changed, but we also haven’t heard of any avalanches or additional collapses. If you dig on shaded aspects you could find several possible weak layers below the recent snow. The most notable are facets/surface hoar and/or a thin crust formed during the long January Drough (JDL) and a slightly thicker crust/facet combination from 1/10. Sunshine and warm weather generally destroyed these layers on SE-S-W aspects and instead formed one much thicker melt-freeze crust (1/31). 

At the lowest elevations and in the eastern parts of the zone, the snowpack may be very weak, but there hasn’t been much new snow. As a result, you’ll likely find general safe avalanche conditions and more exposed obstacles. 

Regions covered