Bulletin d’avalanche

West Slopes South

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Danger d’avalanche

Mon
Alpin
1 · Faible
Limite forestière
1 · Faible
Sous la limite
Sans niveau
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Périmé — ce bulletin a expiré 8 months ago. Vous consultez des conditions passées, pas le bulletin en cours.

Points saillants

Avalanche potential is generally low across the mountains of the West South zone. Instead, you'll likely encounter significant travel hazards. We're headed back into a relatively warm and rainy pattern for the next few days, meaning wet slides should be in the back of your mind, even if they're unlikely. 

Problèmes avalancheux

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpin
    • Limite forestière
    • Sous la limite forestière
    Probabilité
    Unlikely
    Taille
    1–2

    The return of rain means there is a lingering chance of wet avalanches occurring on Sunday, particularly on the volcanoes. The rain will likely need to battle stiff winds and break down a stout surface crust before avalanche activity can occur. Even if that happens, the snowpack should be well-suited to handle the additional water, leaving us with an unlikely scenario.

    All the same, wet avalanches are unpredictable and poorly understood, so these slides aren't entirely off the table. You may see chunks of snow shed from rocky ledges or blocks of ice fall on the upper volcanoes. 

    In isolated locations, avalanches could gouge down to or even fail at the ground. If you see any avalanches containing dirt or exposing bare ground, it's time to get out of the hills for the day.

    (12/13/2025)

    Snow is still clinging to steep rocky terrain. Note the cracks around rocks. This is the type of terrain where wet avalanches could still occur. 

Avalanche Discussion

After a rain-soaked week, Saturday was a beautiful day in the mountains! NWAC forecasters took advantage of the nice day to visit the volcanoes and assess conditions. Reports from Mount Adams and Mount Rainer were pretty similar. You'll need to reach roughly 6000 feet to find enough snow coverage to play, and even then, it may be spotty until you reach 6500 feet. The snow surface was mainly frozen and slick, but softened on sun-exposed slopes around midday at mid elevations, while upper elevations remained firm. Numerous recent large to very large avalanches were reported, likely triggered by this week's atmospheric rivers. Lower elevations are bare, meaning we aren't issuing an avalanche hazard rating at this time. Closer to the crest, uncertainty is higher due to access issues, but snow coverage is believed to be spottier than on the volcanoes. 

Access to the mountains has become complicated and potentially unsafe. Many roads and trails have flooded, and some have washed away completely. Mudslides, downed trees, and raging creeks are other obstacles you may need to navigate. On the volcanoes, those firm surfaces have created slide-for-life conditions requiring specialized equipment and travel experience. If you're heading out to play, take your time getting in and out of the mountains, and expect the hills to look wildly different from what you're used to this time of year. 

Unfortunately, the nice weather will be brief as we head back toward rain showers on Sunday, ahead of another atmospheric river on Monday. Although not as much water is predicted this time around, it should again rain well above crest level, with only the upper volcanoes accumulating snow. Our snowpack should be well-suited to handle additional water at this point, but another round of wet avalanches plus flooding, mudslides, and washouts could occur. 

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.

Régions couvertes