Stevens Pass

Friday will be cooler than previous days with warmer temperatures at upper elevations. Watch for small wet avalanches on isolated steep slopes and rock features in the sun. A warm, wet storm will bring more dangerous avalanche conditions Friday night into the weekend.

While avalanches are unlikely, you may still be able to trigger a small wet loose slide on isolated sunny slopes above 4,500ft, especially near rocks and cliffs. A small avalanche could push you off your feet in very steep, extreme terrain. 

A wet storm will move in late Friday night, bringing rain to many areas in the zone. This storm will trend warm to cold and will have existing temperature inversions to contend with. While the outcome is still a bit unclear, we expect an increase in avalanche danger Friday night with elevated danger through the weekend. Rain will likely fall on a previously dry snowpack on the north half of the compass. 

An NWAC forecaster was on Stevens Pass area on Wednesday. Snow depths near 5000ft averaged 3-4ft, with slightly less snow 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. 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. There was also weak snow adjacent to crusts in the mid-pack. There was a narrow elevation band with a "bathtub" ring of surface hoar from approximately 4100-4600ft. You can expect challenging travel conditions with many rocks, trees, and holes still exposed in our shallow snowpack and breakable crusts on southern slopes.