West Slopes Central

Use normal caution both in and out of avalanche terrain. You can find pockets of wind-drifted snow in the alpine. There is still a chance of cornice fall, glide avalanches, or snow shedding from cliffs at low and mid-elevations. Be prepared for irregular snow cover, open creeks and lakes, and other complications to mountain travel.

Don't take Low avalanche danger for granted. Fresh snow has accumulated at the highest elevations. While winds are generally calm, stronger winds will come to upper elevations on Sunday afternoon and drift any snow available for transport.  Evaluate wind slab depth and bonding before heading into exposed terrain.

West Central should see increasing amounts of sun throughout the day, but there is a low likelihood of seeing much in terms of avalanches or even signs of instability. A bit of sun shouldn't add much more to the beatdown our snowpack got from the last few weeks of warmth, rain, and melting. That being said, glide avalanches, cornice fall, and snow shedding of cliffs and rocky terrain are still a thing at low and mid-elevations. Keep track of what is overhead and don’t linger under questionable, precarious-looking snow features, especially those basking in the sun.

The amount of snow lost in the North Cascades in the past few weeks is startling. Significant snow cover can still be found starting at 4000’ to 5000’ depending on slope aspect and location. But much of the snow is just gone below those elevations. In appearance, the mountains look more like they do in mid-May than early February. Check out NWAC's bi-monthly snow depth climatology report.

White Chuck went from a peak snow depth of 86” on January 17th down to 62” as of Friday afternoon. The primary culprits were well above-freezing temperatures combined with 3-6” of rain in the last week. Other forecast zones neighboring West Central experienced similar conditions and loss of snowpack.

In general, off-trail mountain travel is a bit difficult with lots of open creeks and lakes and other exposed objects exhumed from the snowpack by heavy rain. Where snow cover is more consistent, thick, chunky avalanche debris is found below most steep slopes from a widespread natural avalanche cycle on Jan 27-28.