Bollettino valanghe

Olympics

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Pericolo valanghe

Sat
Alta quota
2 · Moderato
Limite del bosco
2 · Moderato
Sotto il limite
1 · Debole
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Non aggiornato — questo bollettino è scaduto 8 months ago. Stai vedendo condizioni passate, non il bollettino in corso.

In sintesi

The snowpack grew a lot last week, but there may be more questions than answers. Start with small, low consequence slopes to gather information before tackling anything bigger. As winds whip throughout the day, the most common issue could be shallow slabs forming on the lee sides of ridges. 

Problemi valanghivi

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Possible
    Dimensione
    1–1.5

    We don’t know much about the upper snowpack in the Olympics, but sometimes it’s best not to overcomplicate things. There’s soft snow on the surface, and the winds are expected to blow Thursday night and into Friday morning. This could easily form new slabs on exposed features, along ridgelines, and below rock bands. Fresh drifts, sharp wind lips, and blowing snow can all help point toward loaded slopes.

    We’d expect these new slabs to be relatively soft, shallow, and easy to trigger, but they should be pretty small. Be careful about tangling with this avalanche problem in very steep, rocky, or confined terrain, where they may easily take you for a ride through rocks and trees.

    (12/19/2025)

    Example: Sharp drifts and wind lips like these indicate wind slabs may be nearby. 

    Photo: Will Govus

Avalanche Discussion

It’s been a good week for the snowpack in the Olympics. Depths nearly tripled at most sites! Ya winter! However, that means there’s a lot of new snow and very little information. Overall, we’d expect two general parts to the snowpack: 1). The lower portion consisting of crusts and wet snow from the early December atmospheric rivers. This portion is likely absent in most lower elevation terrain. And 2). The recent snow from 12/18 to the present. In sheltered areas, this is likely 24 inches or more thick. While the new snow is probably mostly right-side-up, we don’t have much data to support that. So, take a look. Hand pits and snowpack tests can help you identify any lingering weak layers in the upper snowpack. 

NPS rangers also reported a very thin ‘zipper’ crust about a half inch below the surface on 12/25 that extends up to at least 5000ft. This is likely from the warm-up on Christmas Eve. While it’s too shallow at the moment to pose much of an issue, you’ll probably notice it while traveling. You may even find the winds scour the snow down to this layer on windward slopes. 

All the recent snow has certainly helped travel conditions. As one observer put it this week, “it’s taken us a long way from ‘zero’ but we’re nowhere near ‘hero.” Open creeks, random holes, short Christmas trees, shallowly buried rocks, and thickets of shrubs still make common travel routes more of an adventure than we might want.

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