West Slopes Central

Prepare for challenging travel conditions on variable snow and slick crusts. Warming over the next few days should put the hazard of wet avalanches back on your list of mountain hazards. Don't linger under slopes where you see glide cracks and bulging or wrinkled-looking snow.  Rollerballs, snow shedding from cliffs, and small wet avalanches are signs sunny slopes are heating up.

Glide avalanches and other types of "shed" are tricky. They don't give away many hints if they are about to unload onto the slopes below. The best you can do is identify slabs of snow sticking to steep terrain or blocks of snow clinging to cliffs and minimize the time spent below. Many southerly aspects have already produced wet avalanches during prior warming cycles, so they should be less reactive with more warming. But cliffs and other rugged terrain still have more snow to shed. Keep an eye on sunny slopes and snowy cliffs overhead and don’t linger on or below them if you see fresh rollerballs, small wet avalanches, glide cracks, or signs of active melting.

Moderate to strong northerly winds forecast for Saturday failed to materialize except in alpine terrain above 8000' on Mt. Baker.  In West North, observers found thin wind slabs that formed Friday were quite reactive but too small to present much of a hazard. You may find thicker slabs as you climb into exposed, alpine terrain. Keep an eye out for pockets of smooth-looking wind slabs and try to assess for instability before moving into steep slopes with consequences like rocks, cliffs, or crevasses in the runout below.

The snowpack continues to weaken during this prolonged period of high pressure, cool temps, and mostly clear skies. Snow surfaces vary widely between slick crust, wind affected snow, heavily tracked-out slopes, and even some soft snow on sheltered, northerly terrain. Most notable are slide-for-life conditions in Stevens and Snoqualmie Pass that have produced much fear and even some accidents in the past week.