Stevens Pass

Watch for the rogue rock face or cliff to shed some wet snow, but this likelihood is decreasing even further with cooling temperatures. More likely hazards to encounter are rocks, trees, and holes exposed in the shallow snowpack.  

The weak front coming into the area on Thursday won't impact the conditions much. It may only result in a few more clouds on the west side of the pass. It doesn't look like a strong enough weather system to erode the cold air further east, so you can expect yet another day of cold, cloudy skies at lower elevations east of Stevens. This weather system will bring slightly cooler temperatures to the mid and upper elevations, further decreasing the likelihood of wet avalanche activity. Although the temperatures won't be cold by most standards, so you may still see an isolated sunny rock face or cliff shed snow. As always, low danger doesn't mean no danger, so pay attention to these potential overhead hazards as you travel on slopes below. You can expect challenging travel conditions with many rocks, trees, and holes still exposed in our shallow snowpack and breakable crusts on southern slopes. 

I got out in the Stevens Pass area on Wednesday to look at the snowpack's current state after the prolonged inversion. Overall, snow depths in the 5000ft range averaged between 3-4ft, with slightly shallower depths on southern aspects. The snowpack is holding up well above the inversion, despite temperatures in the mid 40°F's. Southern aspects have a strong, well-consolidated snowpack with a thin (.5-1 inch) melt-freeze crust on the surface. This crust is relatively fragile, and boots and skis easily punch through it. North aspects have a cold, dry, layered snowpack with soft surface conditions. A layer of weak, small, faceted grains buried about 5 inches deep produced clean shears with moderate force. Crusts in the mid-pack were also associated with weak snow but were stubborn in stability tests. We also observed a narrow elevation band with a "bathtub" ring of surface hoar from approximately 4100-4600ft.