Avalanche forecast

East Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
3 · Considerable
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Highlights

Heavy snow and strong winds formed deep slabs where you can easily trigger large avalanches. The most dangerous places will be steep slopes with deep wind drifts, where avalanches could be much larger. Reduce your risk by sticking to low-angle, wind-sheltered slopes. 

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    Another pulse of heavy snow with strong winds will continue to build large storm slabs. Where the wind forms thick wind slabs, avalanches could be large enough to damage trees or cars. Avoid traveling on steep wind-loaded slopes. Cracking, recent avalanches, and test slopes that slide easily are all signs of instability. But even if you don't see obvious signs, err on the side of caution and stick to low-angle slopes, sheltered from the wind. You could trigger an avalanche on most steep slopes, but steep wind-loaded slopes are likely to be the most dangerous places. You can identify wind-loaded terrain using visual clues such as drifts and textured surfaces. With wind speeds up to 60mph, wind slabs are likely to form in odd locations, farther downslope, or in typically sheltered terrain. 

    Areas near the Cascade Crest continue to be favored with higher snow totals, so expect more widespread and larger avalanches farther west in the zone. 

    (3/6/2026)

    A test slope showed unstable cracking in wind-loaded snow.

    Photo: Payton Schiff

Avalanche Discussion

Wednesday night, a powerful storm brought 10-12" of snow to the zone with warming temperatures. Most lower elevations experienced rain, while areas above 5000ft likely stayed as snow. This next round of moisture will be colder, bringing another foot of snow our way. The winds will keep cranking through at least midday on Friday. So expect a blustery day in the mountains. We've been tracking the 2/13 buried surface hoar and facets around the 2/7 crust. These layers are likely buried 3-4ft deep in areas closer to the crest and much shallower farther east. Avalanche activity on these layers was isolated to wind-loaded terrain after the last February and early March storms, and we haven't had any activity since March 2nd.  While these layers haven't shown signs of reactivity in a while, this storm could change that. Given the ongoing loading, avalanches on these weak layers could now be more likely. But we won't know much about this problem until after the storm passes. So treat these weak snow layers as highly suspect until we can reduce the uncertainty. 

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