Avalanche Forecast

Partly cloudy to mostly sunny weather with cool temperatures and  light winds are expected Wednesday. This should allow for recent wind slabs to continue to slowly settle and stabilize.

However, earlier formed wind slab will most likely be found on N-SE aspects near and above tree line and on some cross loaded features below tree line as well. Wind slab avalanches should stay within recent storm layers. Test for inverted strong over weak wind layers and give recently formed cornices a wide margin.

Beware of loose dry avalanches in steep non-wind affected terrain that could have unintended  such as knocking you off your feet and into a terrain trap.

There have been snow immersion fatalities in tree wells already this season at Snoqualmie and in Canada. Recent unconsolidated storm snow is still very deep in places with possible large tree wells lurking, so stick near your partner in the trees and maintain visual contact.  

We have had about a week of heavy snow and cool temperatures in the Olympics and Cascades, with the snow tapering over the past four days. Only three inches of additional snowfall was reported at Hurricane Ridge in the past three days as of Tuesday morning. It's been dry and very cool with light winds Monday and Tuesday.  The Hurricane Ridge height of snow 86 inches Tuesday morning only indicating a little settlement since the heavy snows last week. 

The storm snow during the week before Christmas was about 4 feet at Hurricane Ridge.  The main message is that most of the storm layers have settled, leaving some areas of the recent wind slab as the primary avalanche problem on many exposed slopes and terrain features. 

The most recent observations were made Sunday the 27th, by NWAC observer, Matt Schonwald who found a wide distribution of wind slab along ridge features as well as cross loaded slopes below ridgeline.  Matt ski cut a wind slab on a steep convex feature on a N facing slope at about 4800 feet. These features were evident on many exposed N-E facing slopes exposed to wind.

Hurricane Ridge December 27, 2015. Triggered wind slabs on a steep convex N slope, 4800 ft. Photos T. Allen

Also reported that cornices were quite large, overhanging some 2 meters in places, and posed their own hazard due to their size.   

In non-wind affected areas, the upper snowpack was generally right side up with increasing hardness with depth and still providing good skiing conditions. Unlike last year, there is now a healthy snowpack below treeline on all aspects.