Avalanche forecast

West Slopes Central

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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

Rain may taper by Thursday, but saturated snow lingers. Don’t travel beneath cliffs, cornices, or steep slopes primed to shed wet snow. Count on the possibility of landslides or downed trees on your approach.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–1.5

    A few inches, or maybe more, of new snow should accumulate at upper elevations if snow levels drop before the end of precipitation. The dense new snow should be right side up, but you could still find small pockets of recently wind loaded snow. 

    Not many will make the journey to upper elevations on Friday. If you do, look for signs of active wind loading and keep track of new snow depths and layering as you gain elevation and change aspects. Any new slabs should be small, but they can still take you for a nasty ride down slopes with lots of exposed rocks or other ugly terrain features.

    (3/3/2021) 

    Looks for pockets of shallow but fresh wind slab where you see active wind drifiting.

  • Glide Cracks

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    The anticipated cool-down in temperatures and the end of precipitation should stamp out most avalanche activity where there is still enough snow to slide. But don't expect any snowpack left standing to dry up immediately. Depending on elevation and the extent of snow cover,  there is still a low chance of seeing glide, wet loose, and wet slab avalanches, cornice falls, or just blocks of snow shedding from rocks and cliffs.

    The main danger isn't so much triggering a wet avalanche on steep snow-covered slopes; it's that wet, saturated snowpacks tend to unload sporadically even after precipitation ends. Keep an eye on what is above you if you make it into the mountains on Friday, and don't linger under anything else that looks wet, sketchy, and poorly attached to the mountain.

     

    (12/9/2025)

    Recent glide avalanches in the Baker Backcountry. 

    Photo: Zack McGill

Avalanche Discussion

The full length of the Cascade Range has just received an objectionable amount of rain, and there's still another 2-4 inches of precipitation in the forecast overnight into Thursday morning.  Weather stations in West Central are reporting anywhere from 3.5 to 7.5 inches of precipitation in the last 24 hours, most of which fell as rain. With ridgeline temperatures climbing into the high 30s and low 40s through the day, it's safe to say it is still raining in most areas. The White Chuck Tripod at 5000 feet showed a gain of a few inches of snow yesterday evening before losing it all and a few more through the day.

What has been the outcome so far besides river flooding and landslides? It's hard to say. If this sort of rain fell on a healthy, mid-winter snowpack, we would expect to see very large to historic-sized avalanches run full length to the valley bottom, laying waste to anything in their path.  But at mid-elevations, the snowpack was dismal, and much of what is out there had already seen plenty rain, warming and avalanche activity.  Snowpack depths quickly increased as one climbed above 6000 feet, so drier snow up higher likely had a more adverse reaction to rainfall as usual.

Between heavy rain and poor visibility, no backcountry avalanche observations were submitted as of Wednesday afternoon. But it's a safe bet that upper elevation areas experienced some amount of natural activity in the form of wet loose and other types of wet avalanches. Continued rainfall is also likely to have produced more glide avalanches, like those reported earlier in the week above the Cascade River Road.

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.

 

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