Hatcher Pass

The avalanche danger remains LOW at all elevations.

Early-season hazards related to a shallow snowpack remain the biggest hazard as the weekend wraps up.

Expect conditions to change Monday as a quick-hitting front passes through the area, favoring Hatcher Pass with up to a foot of new snow. 

Now is a great time to practice good travel protocol so that it's part of your routine when the hazard increases. 

----------------------------------------------------------

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Submit your observations! Click here for some tips and tricks on how, and check the observations page for more information on recent snow and avalanche conditions.  

HPAC could not exist without the support of our community.  Thank You! Click HERE to support public avalanche information at Hatcher Pass.

 UPCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday, December 3rd – 6:15-8:00 PM @ Backcountry Bike & Ski

Join us for the first forecaster chat of the season aka the “State of the Snowpack” with HPAC forecasters to go over the new forecast platform, submitting public observations, a review of our season’s history and what to expect moving forward.

The end of the week brought a strong inversion and warming to the upper elevations of Hatcher Pass. Temperatures topped out at 40° on Thursday 11/20 and have barely dipped below freezing since. The low angle of the sun and a light breeze helped keep the snow surface cool, and because of that, the temperature inversion has had a limited effect on the snowpack. Overall, conditions remain thin and variable with the predominant themes of the snowpack being its shallow depth and mostly faceted constitution. Forecasters in the field yesterday did observe increased supportability and consistency in their travels, however, I don't expect that these conditions are widespread, so don't worry, there are plenty of challenging turns still out there.

Remember low hazard doesn't mean no hazard, and as we saw last week, it's still possible to trigger Dry Loose and shallow Slab avalanches in steep, upper-elevation terrain. It's a good time to practice safe travel protocol so that it's part of your routine as the season progresses and hazard increases. This means having good communication with our partners and other parties in the area, skiing or riding one person at a time, and regrouping in safe areas.  

Expect conditions to change and hazard to rise tomorrow as a storm approaches from the west today. Snowfall is expected to start early Monday and favor Hatcher Pass with up to a foot of new snow by Tuesday. If we receive the upper end of the forecast and any associated winds, the avalanche danger could rise to Moderate by mid-day Monday. 

DRY LOOSE

Warm temperatures over the past few days have improved stability and triggering a large dry loose avalanche is unlikely.  The biggest concern is triggering a small sluff in steep or extreme terrain 40 degrees and steeper that entrains the entire snowpack which consists of sugary snow sitting on a firm icy bed surface.  Taking a ride in these conditions would be a bad time, and could be an unfortunate and early end to the season.

PERSISTENT SLABS

This week we found persistent slabs in isolated locations 4 to 8 inches thick that are mostly unreactive. The most likely locations to find a persistent slab will be previously wind-loaded slopes, southwest to north (clockwise) aspects, above 3500 ft on slopes 30 degrees and steeper in isolated and extreme terrain. So far, instability in snowpack tests has not correlated to triggering avalanches. Still, this problem remains on our radar as the structure is in place and folks continue to push into steeper terrain. The variability in the snowpack remains high, ranging from bottomless facets to old deteriorating wind slabs to shallow rocky slopes. This setup isn't ideal but it's unlikely to present any real hazard until another load is deposited on top.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

RECENT AVALANCHES

Forecasters observed a few small dry loose sluffs Friday on the southeast and east faces of Skyscraper and similar aspects. 

See Friday's Observation here 

Settling conditions and no avalanches were observed in the field yesterday.