Avalanche forecast

Stevens Pass

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sun
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

Cooling temperatures are slowly reducing the chances of wet avalanches, but not entirely. You can still trigger avalanches on steep slopes where you find recent snow that slides easily or areas of unsupportive, wet snow. Use caution on and under steep slopes and avoid stopping under cornices and large open avalanche paths. 

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    Use caution on steep slopes that hold moist to wet snow. You could trigger avalanches in surface layers of moist snow. While large, wet avalanches are less likely, it's still a good idea to stay out from under steep overhead terrain. Cornice falls and glide avalanches could have serious consequences. Whether you're on ridges or slopes below, give cornices a wide berth.

    Saturday's wet avalanches will mostly be shallow and small, involving the 2-3 inches of recent snow as it warms up. This snow could slide easily on newly forming crust, just under the surface. This crust, while still not solidly frozen, is adding strength to the older snow that got saturated by rain on March 23-24th. Keep monitoring the crust. If it softens as the day warms or you find areas of entirely wet, unsupportive snow, you should expect larger and more dangerous wet avalanches. 

    (3/25/2025)

    A deep crown, over 1000ft wide, of a very large (D3) wet slab avalanche.

    Mt Mastiff, WNW, 6,500ft

    Photo: Josh Hirshberg

Avalanche Discussion

On Friday night into Saturday, temperatures will cool and unsettled weather will bring another dusting of snow to upper elevations. You may see some partial clearing on Saturday, allowing the sun to warm many slopes. The partially frozen, older snow could result in challenging, crusty travel conditions.

On Thursday, 2-3 inches of snow accumulated at middle elevations, with wet snow and rain falling below 5,000 feet. The old snow surface saw its first weak freeze since the rain event of March 23rd. We expect overnight weak freezes to continue building this crust, but it may take several days before it's solidly frozen. An NWAC forecaster found that the upper snowpack had well-transitioned wet grains with moist snow as deep as two feet below the surface. 

The Stevens Pass zone received over 4" of liquid water at 5000ft from March 23-25th. This initiated widespread avalanches, including many large to very large wet slab avalanches. On the 25th, an NWAC forecaster reported the widespread avalanche activity that occurred a day or so prior in the Highway 2 corridor. Very large (up to D3) wet slab avalanches with widely propagating and deep crowns occurred at upper elevations. At lower elevations, wet loose avalanches (Size D1-2) ran on most steep slopes.

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