Video
Ranger Brief: Avalanche Risk on Mount Rainier
Transcript
My name is Glenn Kessler, Supervisory Climbing Ranger at Mount Rainier.
The avalanche risk on Mount Rainier for visitors exists sort of two times- two different heights of the year. One is the winter season as we have right now where we get a fair amount of new snow on the mountain. Upper mountain, lower mountain, we just get a lot of snow. The primary avalanche season is the winter time. We tend to have storms that bring in avalanche danger and they’re direct action storms, and by that I mean when the amount of snowfall increases that’s when our avalanches generally happen. Snow time- or I should say if we have snowfall- we have a storm; as the storm starts the avalanche danger slowly rises, and then rapidly rises once we get six to eight to ten inches of snow. Often we’re stable on the lower mountain here within about 48 hours, although that’s only when the Northwest is acting like the Northwest, and it’s generally mild temperatures and deep snowpack. On the upper mountain that danger can linger for weeks. So that’s the main season, is basically December or late-November through the end of winter.
Then comes a secondary season in between when the skiers sort of take off and then our climbers come out in force and start heading out on the upper mountain. So we get a secondary season when the climbers come out and the seasons change such that the snow that’s already fallen, plus some new snow possibly, and the warm temperatures of spring-time start to melt the snow that’s on the mountain, and then we get a lot of spring avalanches which can happen directly after small storms or even larger avalanches as water percolates through that snowpack that’s been around all year long, and we can have this secondary season and have some pretty large avalanches based on that.
Today we have good weather and the only reason why the avalanche danger at this level has gone down to moderate and considerable just above here- moderate here at tree-line and considerable above- is that we’ve actually had a couple of days without snow. So, if you’ve got a big storm and that ends pretty pronto right after the large part of that snowfall and the sun comes out, we could have just a morning after a big snow storm and that’s a tough time because people know- they watch the weather, they watch the news and they know when that good weather is coming and what they don’t pay attention to is just cause you got good weather does not mean avalanche conditions aren’t bad. Looking at the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center website, making sure you are up on what’s going on. If that website is down for the year, which happens towards the April period of time, check with the Park Service and find out what’s gone on as far as the avalanche danger.
However, the avalanche centers can only basically do a forecast for about seven thousand feet or so. And here on Mount Rainier we’re already at fifty four hundred here at Paradise right now and seven thousand feet is the top of Pan Point which is not too far. Our visitors very often in the wintertime and the summertime are going well beyond seven thousand feet, so those avalanche reports have to be read and understood that they’re for a limited amount of terrain and the reports specifically say they are not valid for higher elevations on the volcanic peaks, such as Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Baker, Shuksan, etc. So you’ll have to do your own investigation once you leave that seven thousand foot level or so.
The roads on Mount Rainier are generally deemed safe when they’re open. You got to still be really careful on the roadways cause we do have some treacherous mountainous roads that there’s no way to make them completely safe from drivers that don’t adhere to speed limits, etc. But if the roads are open they’re deemed to be safe enough that avalanches should not be hitting the roads. We do very little control work but we try not to open the roads when lingering avalanche danger is there. If the avalanche danger is still there but not for large avalanches the roads may be open as long as we’ve got road crew on that can dig out whatever avalanches end up on the road. So, if you come to the park you may also find the road’s closed at times when there’s high avalanche danger because we simply can not open the roads. And that’ll often happen from about mid-winter towards ‘til the end of winter.
Description
Anyone familiar with mountains knows that avalanche danger is always a consideration when heading out for a snowshoe walk or ski trip. Mount Rainier is no exception. In this Ranger Brief video, Climbing Ranger Glenn Kessler discusses avalanche risk and safety on Mount Rainier.
Description: A ranger wearing a yellow Climbing Ranger jacket stands in a snow covered meadow in front of a view of Mount Rainier and describes avalanche conditions in the park.
Duration
4 minutes, 42 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
01/14/2014
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