East Slopes South

If you're punching deeply through wet, sloppy snow, consider finding shadier slopes to recreate on. Higher up, encountering a very small slab of wind-deposited snow isn't off the table, so look for signs of wind transport, such as rippled, uneven snow surfaces that are softer and fresher than old surfaces. Be aware of hazards below you that a small avalanche of either kind could knock you over.

Thursday morning might start either cloudy or sunny. Conditions should be mostly sunny as the day progresses, but the zone might see a snow flurry or two. Temperatures and freezing levels should be chilly and lower in the morning, but they will jump up more quickly if it starts out sunny.

The zone didn't see enough precipitation from the last storm for there to be enough new wet loose hazard to list it as a problem. Refrozen surface crusts will need to break down first before anything deeper could release. With the forecasted weather, don't be surprised to see rollerballs and pinwheels indicating warming and destabilizing. It's possible that the snowpack still holds onto moisture within, which creates some uncertainty. NWAC Forecasters traveling in the nearby East Central zone on Thursday found moist snow all the way down to the January Drought Layer (JDL) buried 26in/65cm. By and large, we think wet snow problems are played out after such an extended period of warm weather, but it won't hurt to keep these nuggets of information in the back of your brain as you travel around. Luckily, managing small wet snow avalanches is predictable and straightforward. 

It's probable that at upper elevations, you could knock off a "wind skin" in complex and exposed terrain. This size of avalanche isn't particularly dangerous, but keeping an eye out for them will help you avoid being caught off guard. Slipping and falling from triggering one could result in being carried over hazards such as rocks and cliffs. Shooting cracks and recent slab avalanches in downwind terrain indicate that these tiny slabs exist.

An NWAC Forecaster visited Ahtanum Meadows last weekend to gather some information for this hard to reach and data poor zone. She found a varied but overall stable snowpack. Surfaces were mostly either crusty or wet, but some soft and dry snow could still be found at upper elevations on shaded aspects. This is one piece of data in a large chunk of terrain for which this forecast is for, and now it's already aging and becoming less relevant. If you travel to other parts of the zone, you'll have to do your own snowpack assessments to determine whether conditions are similar. 

Submit an observation to help NWAC Forecasters reduce uncertainty and write more accurate forecasts. It can be short, simple, and even anonymous. Visit the Recent Observations page to get an idea of what backcountry travelers are sharing that helps entertain the forecasts in other zones.