West Slopes South

Cooling temperatures and increasing winds with the arrival of a weak storm will freeze and stabilize the snowpack. Light rain and a dusting of snow will barely be enough to create new avalanche problems. Watch for blowing snow and wind loading if you venture into steeper terrain at the highest elevations.

The West South zone should pick up a couple of inches of snow over the next 24 hours above 5000ft. By afternoon, there is a chance you could find shallow wind slabs in lee alpine terrain. Below treeline, the snowpack is well adjusted to being wet and light rain won't be enough to increase the avalanche danger. Elsewhere, firm and frozen snow surfaces will limit the potential for additional cornice fall, glide, and wet avalanche activity. 

The snowpack experienced a significant and prolonged thaw MLK weekend, with a stretch of sunny skies and spring-like weather. Several weather stations recorded above freezing temperatures for the past 3 consecutive days, and high temperatures even hit close to 50F on Sunday at Paradise. A handful of wet avalanches ran on the warmest, sunniest slopes but were mostly small. A few cornice fall avalanches were reported as well. On Saturday, a skier triggered a large wind slab high on Mt St Helens. The skier was able to ride off the debris and fortunately, no one was injured or buried (photo below). The crowns of older avalanches in wind drifted snow were reported on Mt Rainier as well.

A frozen surface crust combined with two recent very widespread natural avalanche cycles (Jan 6-7 and 11-12) gives us confidence that the snowpack has become generally stable. The upper snowpack contains alternating layers of firm crusts, weak wet snow, and strong rounded grains. Right now there aren’t any specific layers we’re tracking and any unstable snow should be limited.