Stevens Pass

Driving access within the zone is difficult, and continuous snow exists above 6,000ft. If you manage to reach snow at upper elevations, plan to make your own snowpack assessment. If you see recent avalanches or find wet, uncohesive snow, move to slopes less than 35 degrees.

Making it to continuous snow in this zone is very difficult. If you manage to reach upper elevations, you should be thinking about wet avalanches. Cooling temperatures on Saturday night should continue to freeze previously wet snow. If you are in the mountains, please send us an observation, as we are lacking information.Avalanches are secondary to other hazards and issues facing the Stevens Pass forecast zone. While there's almost no vehicle access into the zone, there's also very limited snow for avalanches. Flooding, washouts, downed trees, damage to Highway 2, and other major roads are limiting access and the information available to produce a forecast.Major rain events since December 4th, culminating with 8.5" of water from December 9-11th, melted snow at middle and lower elevations. The last direct observation from upper elevations found over 3 feet of snow on November 28th. On Saturday, NWAC forecaster got good views of many upper elevation peaks. Wet avalanches likely occurred during the 9th-11th, and some were large. It appeared that any avalanches were at least a couple of days old.With the warm start to the 25-26 winter season, we have less snowpack information than usual to start daily forecast operations. For zones and elevation bands with less snow than needed for avalanche hazard, we will issue a forecast with No Rating. Anticipated avalanche and weather conditions will still be updated daily. NWAC will issue an avalanche danger rating for a zone when enough snow to produce avalanches has accumulated at middle and upper elevations.