Bollettino valanghe

West Slopes North

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Pericolo valanghe

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

In sintesi

The likelihood of a large avalanche from a glide or cornice failure continues to drop as temperatures cool, but consequence is high and it'll probably kill you if you're caught in one. Keep steering around gaping glide cracks and large cornices, and don't linger on slopes beneath them. 

Problemi valanghivi

  • Glide Cracks

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Possible
    Dimensione
    1.5–2.5

    The rapid warming produced wet loose avalanches, a few wet slabs, and then some glide avalanches and cornice failures with subsequent avalanches. The last known activity was on Monday, when a cornice failure in the Baker backcountry produced a large avalanche on a north-facing slope at about 5000ft. This was on the final day of the heat wave. We suspect more avalanches happened that we just don't know about, although in general this warm period produced far fewer avalanches than we expected we'd see. 

    Tuesday night, despite increasing cloud cover and humidity, temperatures dropped and surface crusts formed. As water movement in the snowpack slows and temperatures cool, the likelihood of any of these springlike avalanche problems is trending towards unlikely. Glide avalanches are known to fail up to a few days after a warming event, so continue to avoid terrain beneath large glide cracks, or travel through the area quickly. The same goes for large, saggy cornices. 

    Lower elevations are already so impacted by melting and have likely already fully run their course with wet snow avalanche problems. 

    (1/28/2024) A photo from earlier this year of a glide crack and glide avalanche, similar to what's been happening around the zone in the last few days. Photo: Evan Faulkner

Avalanche Discussion

About two inches of snow is in the forecast for Wednesday night through Thursday. We don't expect there will be enough to change the avalanche danger. Nevertheless, search for newly deposited wind drifts as the few-inch-thick slabs could crack and run on the old snow surface in steep areas.

Steep upper-elevation northerly slopes may have withstood the heat wave and you could still find consolidated dry snow there. If you find dry patches, consider that recently wind-drifted deposits have a small chance of avalanching with a human trigger. Even if the avalanche is small, if there's a cliff, trees, or rocks below you it could still kill you. 

In most areas, you'll probably find a surface crust of varying thickness, possibly coated by a bit of new snow. Wednesday night's snowline is 4000ft, so beneath that elevation just a little rain will impact the already thoroughly wetted and slightly refrozen snowpack.  A little surface softening might happen during the day on Thursday. 

If you get out, please share your observations with us and the local backcountry community. This is even more valuable now that we're getting into the spring and folks are making their way to more distant objectives in the longer daylight hours. Sharing details from areas that are less frequently traveled is so beneficial to the community and the forecast for the zone. 

 

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