Avalanche forecast

Snoqualmie Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

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

Several nights without a solid freeze and continued warm weather will allow the upper snowpack to remain wet and weak. Be suspicious of any steep slope when you find wet and punchy snow deeper than your ankle. As this spring transition continues, cornices could collapse and snow shed from rocky terrain. 

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

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

    The upper snowpack continues to undergo a prolonged spring-transition period and Monday won’t be any different. We expect yet another night without a freeze Sunday evening. So, you may encounter wet and punchy snow even in the morning. While you aren’t likely to trigger a slide on every slope, when conditions are like this, all steep terrain with wet snow deeper than your ankle should be suspect. This time of year, that includes shady aspects. Don’t let one of these slides catch you off guard and push you over cliffs or into a creek. 

    As the mountains continue to move towards spring, sometimes snow simply falls down. Cornices can collapse and snow may shed from rocky faces. Needless to say, you don’t want to be under these slopes if that happens. So, make sure to pay attention to the terrain above you and don’t linger underneath these features.

    (3/24/2022)

    Take a moment to step off your mode of travel to see how deeply you are plunging into the snow. If you are sinking in past your ankle, start to think about wet avalanches. 

    Photo: Dallas Glass

Avalanche Discussion

Sunday will be the third night in a row without a solid freeze at Snoqualmie Pass. Often this can be a critical threshold for the snow causing it to become more unstable. However, cooling temperatures and some cloud cover should help offset this issue. That said, as we reach deeper into this prolonged warm spell our uncertainty grows. Fortunately, the mountains have been through several warm and wet periods this winter. In this case, we’re really only worried about the upper snowpack above the very prominent Early March Crust. 

Much of the upper snowpack has now transitioned to spring-like melt form snow. On mid and upper elevation shaded aspects you may find a more nuanced snowpack with layers of spring snow and dry rounded grains. It's in these same areas where we tracked the 3/8 facets over the Early March Crust. While there hasn’t been any real avalanche activity on this layer in the Snoqualmie Zone, it's possible that a large trigger like a cornice fall could wake it up. We have a lot more uncertainty about this layer in the higher terrain near the eastern edge of the zone. 

At lower elevations, the snowpack has fully transitioned to spring and is shrinking. In fact, there isn’t much snow left below 2500’. Down in the forest, expect open creek, punchy snow, and even bare ground. Fortunately, this significantly limits any avalanche concerns.

Regions covered