Snoqualmie Pass

Cloudy skies and cool temperatures should create generally safe avalanches conditions Saturday. If you’re going to find unstable snow it will likely be a small isolated slab on a wind-loaded slope. Be leery of firm pillow-like drifts if you’re traveling in high consequence terrain.

Saturday will be a bit of a transition day for the mountains ahead of our next storm. Cloudy skies and cool temperatures should significantly limit any avalanche concerns and result in generally safe conditions. There may still be a few lingering small slabs leftover from this past week’s wind events. Easterly winds on Tuesday formed firm smooth drifts in a few unusual areas. This resulted in several human-triggered avalanches Wednesday. By this point, these slabs are a few days old, and likely hard to trigger. However, don’t write them off, especially if your plans take you into high consequence terrain or onto unsupported slopes. 

Over the past week, the surface changed and became more elevation and aspect dependent. As a result, you may encounter variable conditions based on subtle changes in the terrain as you travel. 

Upper Elevations: On exposed slopes, several wind events this past week reshaped the snow forming textured surfaces, scoured slopes, and firm drifts. 

Southerly: On Friday sunny skies and warmer temperatures caused the snow surface to become wet and resulted in several natural small loose wet avalanches. This wet snow should freeze Friday night forming a new crust on any slope that saw direct sunshine. Below this crust, dry snow may still exist from last weekend’s storm. This snow settled significantly this past week, and should be well bonded to a thick and strong crust below. 

Northerly: Outside of wind-affected areas, shaded slopes continue to hold light unconsolidated powder. About 16-20” of recent storm snow at mid and upper elevations buried a thin crust (2/19). While this layer can be hard to find on some slopes, look for it 1-2” above the more prominent Valentine’s Day crust. Faceted snow was observed around and between these two layers. While we don’t currently expect avalanches on these weak grains, that could change going forward.

Very cold temperatures and clear skies this week likely allowed the snow surface to weaken (facet) and surface hoar to grow. As we head into a more active stormy pattern, we want to know where these possible weaklayers exist. Please share your photos and observations of the snow surface with us on Saturday. Thanks for your support.