Olympics

Wherever enough snow exists for recreation, keep an eye on the slopes above you where snow might shed unexpectedly off cliffs, grassy slopes, or smooth scree. Early season obstactles are still very much in play, even at upper elevations where there may be enough snow to ride.

The atmospheric river has not been kind to the limited snowpacks in the Olympics. Hurricane Ridge has received 5.4" or water equivalent (mostly liquid) since Monday morning (12/8). Shallow snow cover clinging to middle-elevation north-facing slopes have likely not survived the rain and warmth. A cool-down Wednesday night brought a skiff of snow to Hurricane Ridge early Thursday that melted off during the day. It's possible that upper elevations picked up 1-2" of new snow, but any wind slabs would be very shallow and isolated.

Going forward, temperatures will warm further Thursday night through Friday, so we're expecting periods of light rain on snowpacks that are relatively unreactive to human-triggers. However, given the massive amounts of water flowing through the snowpacks, keep an eye on the slopes above you where chunks of snow could fall without warning. Suspect areas include precariously perched snow, areas below steep rocky features, or brown frowns indicating that a glide crack might fail without warning. Even shallow snowpacks have a lot of weight right now given that they are fully saturated.

With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.

NWAC will issue an avalanche forecast every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and every holiday mid-week day the Hurricane Ridge Road is open from December until the end of March.  We will issue Avalanche Watches or Warnings when conditions warrant.  We will not update the non-holiday midweek discussion.  Our mountain weather forecasts will continue to cover the Olympics and are issued twice a day through the end of April.  If you have questions or feedback, please contact us at [email protected] and [email protected].