East Slopes Central

Avalanche conditions are generally safe. But you should still watch for small, isolated pockets of unstable wind-drifted snow, particularly in the northern portion of the zone. For the most part, challenging travel on slick or breakable crusts and low snow cover will be your primary hazards.

Further north in the zone and East North, small pockets of wind slabs formed near ridgelines at upper elevations. They are likely small, and observations indicate they are not particularly reactive. Still, if you see shooting cracks or feel hollow like pillows of snow, you might consider steering around steep terrain. Temperatures are on a cooling trend, but they won't drop off drastically, so the rouge cliff or rock face may still shed some snow. Look out for these overhead hazards if the snow is wet and mushy. Watch out for these isolated pockets of terrain where you might trigger a slide because even a small avalanche could be a rough, painful ride over shallowly buried obstacles. 

We have limited information and quite a lot of uncertainty about the snowpack at upper elevations. Further north in the zone, you may find dry snow above 6500ft. Further south, even at these upper elevations, the snowpack may be wet and punchy or have a breakable melt-freeze crust on the surface. In the Icicle Drainage, observations indicate dry snow without a crust at elevations above 7000ft. If you head out into alpine terrain, plan for this increased uncertainty and be prepared to make snowpack assessments as you travel. Look for blowing or drifting snow and use quick hand pits or test slopes to see how the surface snow reacts. 

The last significant snowfall was December 9-10th, with 8-20 inches of snow that unfortunately ended in rain. Since then, inversions have dominated the east slopes, with cold valley temperatures underneath the cloud deck and sunny skies with temperatures nearing 40F at upper elevations. 

You can contribute to the forecast by letting us know what you see. Submit a public observation here.