Presidential Range

Avalanches are unlikely, but you could find small areas of unstable snow on steep, east-facing slopes where the terrain has provided protection from the wind. Be cautious around deeper drifts of snow that appear bright white and smooth in contrast to the hard, textured old snow.

The snowpack in avalanche terrain is a mix of hard, slick rain crust and small areas of old, wind-hardened slabs that are generally unreactive and stable. Areas of old wind slabs are small in size, isolated in their distribution, and generally stable. If you find a deeper drift of softer snow with a concerning snowpack structure, it should be easy to avoid by finding an alternate route on wind-hardened snow or on the icy rain crust. The most likely area to find an isolated, softer area of unstable snow is below 5000’ in elevation around terrain features like cliffs and narrow gullies that are highly wind-protected. Crampons, an ice ax, and a helmet can help to mitigate the risk of a serious fall in steep terrain today. 

A significant temperature increase on 12/20 and many hours of extreme winds have worked to settle, compact, and bond softer snow on top of the old rain crust. As temperatures have dropped below zero again and will remain cold, snowpack faceting (weakening of buried layers of snow) at the interface of the rain crust is possible over the next couple of days. If you observe facets near the rain crust while digging in the snowpack, please feel free to share that information with an observation. OBSERVATIONS: Please consider submitting an observation on our website or in the new Avy phone app of what you are seeing in your travels. Submitting an observation hones your skills, informs other users, and improves our forecasts.