Stevens Pass

On Wednesday, the sun and warm temperatures could soften crusts on southerly aspects. While unlikely, rollerballs or wet avalanches would be signs of more elevated avalanche danger on sunny slopes. Your main concern will be challenging travel due to shallow snow and crusts.

Wednesday will be another mild, sunny day with avalanches unlikely. Overnight low temperatures will be well below freezing, but daytime highs will be warmer than on Tuesday. You can expect surface crusts on southwest through southeast aspects. On other aspects above 5,500ft, you may find enough recent snow (3" or more) for softer travel.  While unlikely, upper elevations hold the only potential for anything resembling an avalanche, as more snow would've accumulated there since February 7th, and even as far back as the 28th. If traveling above 6,000ft, keep an eye out for wet avalanches on steep southerly aspects, and older wind-drifted snow on leeward sides of ridges.

On Tuesday, the skies were mostly clear. An NWAC forecaster reported a couple of very small wet avalanches on Rock Mtn (6,400ft, SE). In Tunnel Creek at 5,500ft, SW, they found 3-4" of recent snow, punctuated by a thin crust. At low elevations, the crust becomes thick and breakable. This recent snow is resting on a stout February 7th crust. Snow surfaces on southerly aspects were moist by late morning.

This week, forecasters found that travel hazards outweighed avalanche hazards. Open creeks, bare ground, breakable crusts, and frozen chunder in forested areas are all things you might have to contend with to get into the more pleasant conditions above about 5500ft. After prolonged sunny, warm days, the upper snowpack on south aspects remains wet beneath surface crusts. On northerly aspects, the snowpack is slightly less soggy, but still moist with multiple crusts in the upper snowpack. Moving forward, we have no known deeper layers concern.