Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 4 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Strong winds could easily form new avalanche issues by transporting the fresh snow into deeper and firmer drifts. Pay attention to blowing snow and your local wind direction to help anticipate which slopes you want to avoid.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    As the day goes on and snow continues to fall, moderate to strong winds should easily form fresh wind slabs that you can trigger. You could encounter small pockets of wind-loaded snow near exposed features, along the base of cliffs, and in confined gullies. Fortunately, figuring out which slopes hold new wind slabs should be fairly easy. Watch for actively blowing snow and take note of local wind directions to anticipate which features you want to avoid. While most of these potential slides should stay fairly small and shallow, don’t let them knock you off your feet and carry you over a cliff or into rocks. By the end of the day, some of these slabs could be 6-8 inches deep and becoming slightly harder to manage.

    (12/3/2022)

    Actively blowing snow, freshly building sharp cornices, and textured surfaces. All easy-to-identify signs of wind-loading. Look for slabs to develop on the slopes on the left side of the picture.

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

The flow pattern with this storm doesn’t really favor the Pass. As a result, we’ll probably only see modest new snow accumulations of 3-4 inches by the end of Thursday. This alone won’t really increase the avalanche danger. However, moderate to strong winds should help the hazard to slowly rise throughout the day as slabs grow larger and become more widespread. These same gusty winds could make travel at upper elevations quite challenging. 

In general, the snowpack around the Pass is strong and well-settled. Observations from early this week indicate a mostly right-side-up structure without any real layers of concern. While you can still find layers like the 11/22 crust, a lack of avalanches and significant snowpack test results gives us confidence that this layer is not a major issue in this zone. 

Instead, your greatest hazard may come from early-season conditions. Plenty of open creeks, holes near rocks, and shallowly covered brush continue to make travel more difficult and dangerous. Give yourself extra time to navigate through these obstacles. 

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