Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

New snow amounts and avalanche activity vary widely in the zone, with about six inches of snow in the northern parts, and closer to one or two further south. In areas where the snow starts reaching about six inches over the crust, and especially where it's drifted into firmer deposits, expect snow to easily avalanche on the underlying crust on steep slopes. Steer around these areas, or expect that you'll trigger an avalanche if you venture there. 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1

    Snow is most likely to slide easily on the underlying crust where it was redistributed into thicker wind slabs. Search for textured or smoothed, pillowed surfaces to visually identify slabs. They frequently form along the sides of ridges, in gullies, and around features like steep rollovers or rocky outcroppings. In these wind-loaded areas where snow depths over the crust are getting close to 6 inches, expect that you can trigger an avalanche.

    Steer around these locations on steep slopes, or expect that you'll be triggering small avalanches if you venture there. We expect you'll find thicker, more wind-affected slabs as you climb higher. They may also be limited to areas further north in the zone. 

    Example photo: You can trigger an avalanche on a wind slab in areas where snow depths start reaching about 6 inches in depth. You can expect that they'll slide easily on the crust, but remain small due to limited snow amounts. 

Avalanche Discussion

If several inches of non-wind-affected snow are present, you could probably initiate small loose dry avalanches on steep slopes as well. We're in a period of fickle spring weather right now, with intense bursts of precipitation like what we saw on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, we expect mainly sunny skies. Temperatures will stay cool, but you can expect rollerballs and small wet loose avalanches in the new snow running down on any steep slopes within minutes of the sun hitting them. 

Warm temperatures resulted in wet loose avalanche activity at the end of last week, and now crusts exist on all aspects under the new snow, except maybe due north upper elevation slopes. These crusts could be variable and punchy underfoot. There will be frozen debris piles from the wet loose avalanches, and there are also plenty of exposed hazards all the way up through mid elevations, thanks to our thin snow cover this year. 

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