Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
View on map

Avalanche danger

Mon
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
Open full map
Out of date — this forecast expired 3 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Fresh snow is forecast for mid and upper elevations. You could find small but unstable new slabs, especially on wind-loaded  slopes. Look out for cliffs shedding snow and wet avalanches at low elevations..

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    With falling snow levels, dry snow should form fresh slabs at mid and upper elevations. You are most likely to trigger one of these avalanches in wind-loaded terrain. But changes in temperature or snowfall intensity can create shallow instabilities in wind-protected terrain as well.

    It should be pretty easy to track the depth of new and wind-drifted snow over the old, wet surface below. You can evaluate how well the new slabs are bonding with simple tests like slope cuts, skin track tests, and hand shears. Blowing and drifting snow will show you which slopes could be wind-loaded. Stick to more sheltered, lower-angled terrain to reduce uncertainty during stormy conditions.

    Example of the kind of slab you might find on Sunday.

  • Loose Wet

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

    Above-freezing temperatures and rainfall will persist at low elevations. Steep terrain holding wet snow should still be on your radar until it gets colder. Avalanches and other signs of instability are surefire signs that overhead terrain is about to shed snow. Better yet, avoid the problem by looking for and staying away from unstable snow perched above before it decides to come down. You are most likely to see this on rock slabs and cliffs, but any steep slope could still produce some sort of avalanche if provoked enough.

    If snow levels end up higher than forecast we could see legitimate rain and more wet avalanches at mid-elevations.

     

    (1/19/2024)

    A small slab avalanche triggered by a wet loose avalanche that released in the terrain above.

    Photo: Julz Holder - Grounding Truth

Avalanche Discussion

Mild temperatures continued to dominate the West Central on Saturday, with most low and mid-elevation weather stations showing high temperatures in the mid-40s. West North saw similar temperatures and rain. The end result was dozens of wet avalanches that ran Friday afternoon or overnight. While many were smaller, many others were D2 in size or larger, including a very large avalanche in alpine terrain that was probably triggered by a falling cornice. The Passes have stayed much cooler in spite of the short distance of these zones from many areas of West Central. Cool easterly flow has kept temperatures in the mid-20’s and the snow surface dry at pass level. 

 

Regions covered