East Slopes Central

Another chilly day is in store for Friday, but thankfully, winds will taper off. There could be isolated pockets of shallow wind-drifted snow in steep, confined rocky terrain at upper elevations where you could trigger an avalanche. More likely hazards to encounter are from challenging travel on breakable crusts and icy surfaces. 

Thursday was a cold and windy day in the East Central Zone. This locked up the wet snow problems from the previous warm days and limited the softening of slopes in the sun. Friday should be a similar day, although decreasing winds could allow some additional softening of snow surfaces in sunny terrain. The temperatures will still be quite cold, so we don't expect any notable wet loose avalanche activity. 

NWAC forecasters in the Salmon La Sac and Mission Ridge area experienced windy conditions but no wind slab formation and minimal avalanche hazard.  Observers in other parts of the zone reported drifting snow that mainly resulted in ground blizzards versus any notable wind slab formation. So, we expect any fresh wind slabs to be small and isolated. Observations from the Teanaway area indicated a weak snow layer beneath a melt-freeze crust in the upper snowpack, producing unstable test results in wind-loaded terrain. In other wind-affected terrain, weak snow over a crust also remains a lingering concern. We expect this problem to be isolated and stubborn, but it keeps the unlikely possibility of triggering an older wind slab on our minds. The most likely place to get surprised by one of these avalanches is at upper elevations, in very steep, unsupported terrain, or in confined rocky chutes. This is also the same terrain where a small avalanche could have high consequences, so consider this potential before stepping out into more complex, aggressive terrain. 

The warm, sunny weather over the past few days formed a melt-freeze crust on the surface of southern aspects, and even northerly aspects at mid-elevations warmed on Wednesday and could now have a very thin crust. Shady slopes also now harbor a layer of large surface hoar over these melt-freeze crusts from the clear nights. Upper elevations are a mix of stiff wind-affected snow and melt-freeze crusts. Some northerly low elevations that stayed cold below the inversion still might hold soft snow. But you're probably more likely to encounter challenging travel over crusts and refrozen corral reef. 

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