Presidential Range

Avalanches are unlikely due to the current hard, frozen snowpack. Move carefully without error on steep, frozen snow surfaces using ice axes and crampons to help reduce the chances of a very dangerous long-sliding fall.

Key Points: 

• Overall, current conditions will limit avalanche danger.
• A hard, refrozen snowpack creates dangerous long-sliding fall conditions on steep terrain. 
• Bring crampons, an ice axe (or two) and a conservative mindset. 

Avalanche danger remains limited, but caution is advised in steep terrain where a sliding fall on the icy surface could have serious consequences.

The snowpack refroze yesterday after warm temperatures and about 1 inch of rain in the preceding days. This refreeze produced a firm, potentially thick crust that now serves as a supportive surface layer and will likely act as the sliding bed surface for any future snowfall and humans, should a fall occur. Around 0.5 inches of new snow arrived overnight, with an additional trace to 2 inches possible today; however, extremely cold temperatures and strong winds (70–90 mph) will likely work to  prevent the light, 5% density snow from bonding effectively to the slick crust. While localized pockets of wind blown snow could accumulate in east facing, leeward terrain features, the cold and windy conditions make it difficult for more widespread wind slabs to form. In many places, new snow is likely to be scoured away or deposited in thin, discontinuous drifts that won’t propagate as an avalanche.

Bring a conservative mindset today. With current firm icy conditions, even a minor misstep can rapidly escalate into a long, uncontrolled slide. The margin for error is nearly non-existent, any lapse in focus or technique, however small, can have immediate and serious consequences. 

OBSERVATIONS: Please consider submitting an observation on our website or in the new Avy phone app of what you are seeing in your travels. Submitting an observation hones your skills, informs other users, and improves our forecasts.