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Snowpack Summary February 27, 2026
Posted by Allen Giernet @ 9:45pm (this summary applies to the weekend)
This summary applies to backcountry areas only.
The Bottom Line –
Prolonged warming with no overnight freezing makes wet loose avalanches our main concern. Wet loose avalanches will be possible at all elevations and on all aspects as the day warms each day. Look for signs of wet snow instability such as pinwheels and roller balls and boots sinking to boot top depth. If you see these signs move to shadier lower angle slopes to avoid being caught.
Posted by Allen Giernet @ 9:45pm (this summary applies to the weekend)
This summary applies to backcountry areas only.
The Bottom Line –
Prolonged warming with no overnight freezing makes wet loose avalanches our main concern. Wet loose avalanches will be possible at all elevations and on all aspects as the day warms each day. Look for signs of wet snow instability such as pinwheels and roller balls and boots sinking to boot top depth. If you see these signs move to shadier lower angle slopes to avoid being caught.
Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.
General discussion
As the days continue to be warm and nights not dropping to freezing levels wet loose avalanches will continue to be a problem and could be large. This problem will move around the slopes following the solar input. Moving from East through South to the West and could happen on all aspects during the warmest part of the day.
These type of avalanches will generally not bury you but move with a lot of power and can carry you through nasty terrain. Avoid being under avalanche slopes as the day warms especially if you see signs of wet snow instability.
The best way to avoid this problem is to start early and finish early before the snowpack warms significantly.
We have received reports of extremely soft snow in the afternoons and sinking deep into wet snow, signs of roller balls and a large wet loose on Mt Baldy Big Butch Wash.
We need Observations, please share any information to our Observation page if you get out into the mountains we truly need this data to help you all out.
As the days continue to be warm and nights not dropping to freezing levels wet loose avalanches will continue to be a problem and could be large. This problem will move around the slopes following the solar input. Moving from East through South to the West and could happen on all aspects during the warmest part of the day.
These type of avalanches will generally not bury you but move with a lot of power and can carry you through nasty terrain. Avoid being under avalanche slopes as the day warms especially if you see signs of wet snow instability.
The best way to avoid this problem is to start early and finish early before the snowpack warms significantly.
We have received reports of extremely soft snow in the afternoons and sinking deep into wet snow, signs of roller balls and a large wet loose on Mt Baldy Big Butch Wash.
We need Observations, please share any information to our Observation page if you get out into the mountains we truly need this data to help you all out.
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General Mountain Weather Forecast |
Disclaimer:
This Bulletin is designed to generally describe conditions where local variations always occur. Travelers are advised to exercise caution and make slope specific evaluations. As always, please treat this bulletin with appropriately guarded skepticism and make your own assessments. Help to provide more information to the community by reporting your observations
This Bulletin is designed to generally describe conditions where local variations always occur. Travelers are advised to exercise caution and make slope specific evaluations. As always, please treat this bulletin with appropriately guarded skepticism and make your own assessments. Help to provide more information to the community by reporting your observations
Recent Observtions
Click on the observation to go to the full report
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Avakanche Obs 2-25-26 Mt Baldy Big Butch Wash
Comment - This occurred between 12pm and 1pm . Wet loose slide came from steeper slopes above into runout area less than 25 degrees. 6,400 feet, about a quarter mile up from the road. Thunder Mountain to Big Butch Wash. |
Snowpack Obs 2-23-26 Angeles Crest
Comment - February 23, 2026 Snow pit data ne aspect 8640’ Climbed and skied from 9400’ Started our tour later in the morning... At trailhead by 830am and climbed to 9400’ by 1230. The day started warm, and warm it did stay. New snow from last weeks storm cycle is now transitioning quickly with rapid daytime warming. Below 8k the snow is variable with firm conditions on colder northern aspects and spring conditions on sunnier east aspects. Touring today was met with substantial glopping on our climbing skins while temperatures rose through late morning. Last weeks snow is transitioning fast. Before things warmed up we found the skinning easy going, but that didn’t last long… The stubborn bonding issue we observed and submitted in obvs days prior seems to have sorted itself out as we did not observe any unusual snow behavior while climbing, but it presented itself in today’s snow pit above 8k. We dug in to a shady 30 degree NE aspect at 8650. Total snow depth was 125cm. 25cm from ground is a very stout layer of ice that is almost impenetrable. Above that is a very nice, stable, singular density storm snowpack of 100cm. The snow pack has no weak layers, and is a singular 100cm of cohesive finger, to 3-4 finger density all the way to the surface. We did get a result though. CT23 at 15cm from surface released along the stubborn bonding interface we observed days prior. Although it did not propagate, the collapse was sudden and when pulled off showed a mostly smooth shear surface, Q2. While riding back down, we did observe some evidence of small roller balls, and very small wet slides on west and some east facing aspects, but of no real significance. |
Snowpack Obs 2-23-26 Winston Spring
Comment - Started at the 6000' gate intending to make it to the Waterman warming hut. Only made it to 7250' before turning back as snow got soft and past knee depth. Past 7000' it got hard pushing through the snow as the depth increased greatly even on trail. As afternoon set in the ease of walking on the firm surface slowly turned into post holing everything that wasn’t tread on already |
Snowpack Obs 2-21-26 Jepson NE Face
Comment - THIS OBSERVATION: We continued up towards the north east face of Jepsen, where at the base of the NE chutes we encountered some discontinuous areas with poorly-bonded, up to ~3in thick wind slabs that broke off when stepping above the skin track. At 4:20PM, we dug a second pit at the base of one of the NE chutes, where this slab was present (see attached map for details). We encountered the previously reported ice layer again, at about 80cm below the surface and did not dig much deeper due to the extremely hard, frozen layer below. The wind-deposited snow sitting atop this ice layer was about 1F to P hardness throughout, with an obvious weak layer 5-10cm below the surface. An extended column test in this pit yielded collapse with propagation on the 22nd tap (ECTP22) at the weak layer. The thin top layer that separated upon collapse and propagation was quite cohesive and did not break when we removed it. The test yielded no further results, indicating that the new snow from the last week had bonded well to the bare ice layer below in this location also. Since the top layer that we were concerned had only been sporadically present in isolated areas and was not too reactive in our pit, we decided to proceed with caution, up the northeast chute of Jepsen, while monitoring it. Based on stepping above the skin track during kick turns, this slab remained present in small, isolated areas only and did not noticeably increase in thickness or appear to be any more reactive at higher elevations (all the way up to the summit). ----- As expected, the conditions skiing down the NE chute of Jepsen were variable und not very pleasant but the skiing became better lower down in the bowl and in the low-angle trees towards the campsite where some of the snow had remained cold and soft. In the morning of 2/22, we skied the treed and up to ~30 degrees steep north-east aspect to the east of Charlton (see attached map), where the snow had largely remained cold, soft and pleasant to ski despite the recent significant warming. We skied out via the summit of Charlton, the NW-facing slope towards just below Dollar Lake Saddle (already somewhat variable from melting and re-freezing the day prior) and Alto Diabolo. On the treed northern aspects of Alto Diabolo we already found very variable conditions from melting and refreezing, and the lower half was low-tide conditions with rocks hiding in the soft snow and plenty manzanita/bush traps towards the bottom. The service road had just barely enough coverage to ski back to the car in the afternoon. Note that due to the rapidly warming weather that is also forecasted to continue throughout this week, conditions will likely change drastically from what we observed on our tour. |
Click on the links below for the latest information
To better understand the challenges and potential variability over the large area we are producing information for please read our Snowpack Summary - Format and Limitations
General Caution
You should always use safe terrain management and carry avalanche rescue equipment in the backcountry. Most avalanches are triggered by someone in the party or the victim. Practice with your rescue gear often and be prepared should the worst happen. Though we do not have an avalanche forecast center in this area as of yet, the information posted and shared here as well as the resources available on this site will help to make informed decisions for your backcountry travels. Use avalanche forecasts in your travels wherever available and be aware that avalanche ratings are general information. Elevation, location, geographic variability’s, slope aspect and angle all have effects on the particular area you travel in. This is only one piece of the information you should use in your decision making process. There is no substitute for avalanche education, for more resources and information as well as education please refer to our resources page.
You should always use safe terrain management and carry avalanche rescue equipment in the backcountry. Most avalanches are triggered by someone in the party or the victim. Practice with your rescue gear often and be prepared should the worst happen. Though we do not have an avalanche forecast center in this area as of yet, the information posted and shared here as well as the resources available on this site will help to make informed decisions for your backcountry travels. Use avalanche forecasts in your travels wherever available and be aware that avalanche ratings are general information. Elevation, location, geographic variability’s, slope aspect and angle all have effects on the particular area you travel in. This is only one piece of the information you should use in your decision making process. There is no substitute for avalanche education, for more resources and information as well as education please refer to our resources page.
