Avalanche forecast

Stevens Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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Out of date — this forecast expired 4 years ago.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

Highlights

Expect to find challenging travel conditions with mushy, wet snow, a breakable ice crust, or a very slippery supportable crust. The snowpack is saturated, and the newly falling snow may entrain to become wet loose avalanches on steep slopes. Large wet slabs and glide slab avalanches remain possible at this time.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2

    New snow should be cohesive and sticky and could entrain into wet loose avalanches on steep slopes. Water continues to percolate into the snowpack in many areas. As it does, large wet avalanches are possible. Recently buried layers of small facets and surface hoar could act as the weak layer for wet slab avalanches. These could be widely propagating and destructive in nature. Glide avalanches could occur on large, steep slopes especially those that are rock slab or grassy underneath. In other areas you might just find challenging travel on a slick and stout ice crust, or it could be breakable. 

    The current conditions are a bit unusual, and wet slides themselves can be hard to predict, so give yourself an extra margin of safety with your travels. Look for recent avalanche activity as the number one bullseye of instability information. Wet, mushy, and unsupportable snow are also good indicators that wet loose avalanches could be possible. 

    Example wet loose avalanche with some dirt in the debris.

    Photo: ONP Rangers

Avalanche Discussion

Highway 2 has been closed since the 24th due to thick freezing rain (see photo below). There may have been a round of wet slides on the 24th into the 25th, but information is limited. WSDOT did a round of control work on the 24th and reported a number of avalanches, one of which crossed Hwy 2. That storm was a complex battle between warm, moist air and very cold air. As a result, you could expect wet snow at mid and upper elevations, and a stout ice crust over dry snow nearer to the valley bottom. 

Betweeh the 18-20th, Stevens Pass picked up cold, dry snow with 3-day 24-hour totals reaching nearly 3 feet. Previous interfaces include the December 18th interface, which held weak grains of small facets, surface hoar, and crusts on southerly aspects. Josh found easy, sudden shears in snowpack tests on this interface last week. A layer of surface hoar dates to December 8. Near the base, weaker snow buried in late November, ccould be found around a couple of crumbly crusts. These past few days couldve been a large enough storm to activate some of these layers, but time will tell.

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