Presidential Range

You are unlikely to trigger an avalanche in today’s icy, refrozen snowpack. Crampons, an ice axe, and the skills to use them will be necessary for safe travels in steep terrain. Stopping a fall in steep, icy terrain today could be impossible.

After nearly a week of warm temperatures, the snowpack has significantly refrozen due to a drop in temperatures, substantially lowering the risk of an avalanche in the older snow layers. Yesterday, the MWAC team observed a widespread slick, hard, and icy snow surface in steep terrain. In some isolated areas that are extremely sheltered from the wind, it is possible to find small patches of wind-drifted snow, which do not pose a significant avalanche problem. 

When traveling on steep slopes today, exercise additional caution and be sure to have your mountaineering equipment and well-practiced skills to stay safe. Your ice axe may not be sufficient to effectively stop a fall today, and any fall in steep terrain will be highly consequential. Preventing a fall in the first place is the most effective strategy for safety.

OBSERVATIONS: Please consider submitting an observation of what you are seeing in your travels. Submitting an observation hones your skills, informs other users, and improves our forecasts. 

Help avalanche researchers! The Colorado Avalanche Information Center, the Avalanche Research Program at Simon Fraser University, and the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research are researching how skiers, snowmobilers, snowshoers, ice climbers, and anyone else who travels in the backcountry interpret avalanche forecast information. Completing this survey will take approximately 20 minutes. Thank you!