Olympics

Minor avalanche concerns exist in the Olympic mountains, including wind-drifted snow near ridgelines and small wet loose avalanches if the sun comes out. Where more recent snow fell in the eastern Olympics, an avalanche might be large enough to bury you in a terrain trap. 

Hurricane Ridge has been experiencing winterlike (below-freezing) temperatures for over a week. However, in the northern Olympics, moisture has been limited. We're left with a stout crust on most aspects with a skiff to a few inches of snow that have fallen. You'll find a graphic of the weather history in the gallery. This recent snow has likely been weakening. We're expecting an inch or so of fresh snowfall Thursday night with light winds redistributing that snow. This could build very shallow slabs just in the lee of ridgelines. You could trigger them in extreme terrain and they might fracture more widely than you expect, failing on potentially weak snow surfaces and running far on a crust. You can use small, representative test slopes to evaluate how well the recent snow is bonded to the crust. The recent snow may also destabilize if/when the sun makes an appearance on Friday. Adjust your aspect and reduce your slope angle if you encounter rollerballs gaining steam.

In the eastern Olympics, you might find more like 6-10" of snow above the crust at middle elevations. This means that wind slabs have more recent snow to transport and wet loose avalanches have more snow to entrain. Use fresh wind lips pointing to recent snow deposits along with firm, punchy snow layers to identify and steer around wind deposits. Much of the wet loose avalanche activity may have run its course, given the reported wet loose activity near Mt Lena and Mt Bretherton last weekend. Surficial crusts have likely formed on many sun-exposed aspects.

The mountains took a break from winter in late January.  The Hurricane Ridge weather station recorded above-freezing temperatures for most of the week back to Jan 26th.  A total of  2.68” of rain fell in the same period. Snow surveys from the Park and also from NWAC's bi-monthly snow depth climatology report paint a picture of a snowpack between 20-30% of normal.  The current snowpack is the 5th lowest in the last 75 years. The snowline rose to around 4200' on northerly aspects around Hurricane Ridge and hasn't yet filled back in. South aspects have patchy snow or a skiff of fresh snow on bare ground, even at upper elevations. 

Photos of the eastern Olympics along with older photos from Hurricane Ridge in the gallery, provide a sampling of the range of coverage you might find in various parts of the zone.

Be prepared for off-trail travel to have an extra adventure element with intermittent snow cover, open creeks, trees, rocks, etc. Carry the proper tools to self-arrest a fall if traveling in alpine terrain or anywhere firm and slick crusts could increase the consequences of a fall.

NWAC may issue a gray "No Rating" for an elevation band when there is not enough snow to present an avalanche hazard.