Stevens Pass

While avalanche conditions are generally safe, there are considerations to keep in mind. Expect variability with older wind-drifts at upper elevations and layers that are still gaining strength in the top foot of the snowpack. You can still find holes near boulder fields and creeks that could be a travel hazards.

Triggering avalanches is now unlikely, though not impossible. The last avalanches, reported on Sunday, were small, wet point releases on steep sunny slopes. If the sun warms these slopes more than expected, more wet avalanches could occur. Winds drifted snow above treeline with a storm Saturday into Sunday. These slabs will now be difficult to trigger. Finally, a couple of interfaces were buried last week, including patchy surface hoar on December 8th, and have been slow to heal. 

On Tuesday, I found light, dry surfaces of all but steep, sun-exposed slopes. There, thin crusts were being melted by the sun and re-freezing by afternoon. Interfaces from the 8th and 9th were visible in tests in the top foot of the snowpack, but they are slowly gaining strength. On Sunday I found fast and clean shears beneath the new snow, 8" down on a shaded, sheltered northerly aspect near Arrowhead.  The failure layer often involved buried surface hoar which observers reported on a many snow surfaces prior to being buried on the 8th. The storm of December 9th brought almost a foot of snow to Stevens Pass and twice that to the eastern mountains. Since then, we haven't received reports of avalanches involving the Dec 8th surface hoar, though observers have reported finding it in patchy distribution sometimes under a thin crust.

Layers of weak snow and crusts were buried by a series of storms in mid to late November. This layer is now near the ground and has been observed to be gaining strength and rounding. These older layers generally haven't been a problem for avalanches in this zone as much as in the East Central zone, though it's something to consider, especially where the snowpack is less than 4 feet deep.