Lawinenlagebericht

Selkirk Mountains

Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Mon
Hochgebirge
1 · Gering
Waldgrenze
1 · Gering
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 5 months ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Prolonged above freezing temperatures and light but steady rain is helping the snow surface become more unconsolidated. Loose wet slides may be easier to initiate on steeper slopes, and even small slides in complex terrain can complicate the consequences if it pushes you somewhere you don’t want to go. Default to lower-angled terrain and limit exposure to steep gullies if wet snow reaches your boot tops.

Sunday, April 12 is the final day of regular avalanche forecast for the 2025-26 season. We will issue spring snowpack updates on Tuesday and Friday through May 1.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Loose Wet

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–1.5

    Temperatures over the last couple of nights have remained well above freezing. Throw in light but wetting rainfall and this means snow surfaces will start out soft and punchy. Fortunately, the snowpack has undergone several cycles of daytime warming followed by overnight refreezing and this should help the snowpack from completely falling apart. It still has the potential to produce a concerning wet slide on slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. Where wet debris travels long-distances or constricted in a gully, they can grow larger in size and become more difficult to escape. Consider traveling on slopes with good views of what’s above and below you before committing, and have an exit strategy in case a wet sluff chases you downhill. 

    Across our northern areas, there may be colder, drier snow still hanging around on high-elevation northerly-facing slopes - mostly from about 6,500 feet and higher. While less likely, these areas may be more capable of producing a worrisome Wet Slab avalanche as the drier snow becomes saturated. These avalanches usually offer little warning signs before failure, so pay attention to how cohesive the rain is making the drier snow slab.

    (4/9/2026)

    A couple small, Loose Wet avalanche on an east-northeast-facing slope around 6,800 feet above the upper Roman Nose Lake. These slides originated below overhanging cornices and likely triggered by rollerballs from surface wetting. Selkirk Mountains.

    Photo: Chris Bilbrey

Avalanche Discussion

The weather continues to park itself on the warm side of things. This means there are still wet snow avalanche hazards that need managing in the mountains. Fortunately, the main snowpack body at mid and upper elevations where depths are deep enough to support larger slides is robust, and this should confine most slides to wet near surface layers. Below 5,000 feet, the snowpack is vanishing quickly and most slopes are losing enough volume to pose much in the way of avalanche hazards.

Natural sloughing of the wet surface snow is likely confined to slopes approaching 40 degrees in steepness, but debris can travel farther than you expect into lower-angled terrain where the snow slides directly on a firm crust. On the other hand, it may not take moving onto the same steepness slope to start the wet snow trundling process downhill. This is important to factor into your terrain management if traveling above other group members or stopping within the terrain to regroup.

If you are seeking out higher elevations in hopes of lingering spring powder, rain wetting the drier snow could increase the chances of more slab-like avalanche activity. Rain totals don’t look overly alarming for our snow climate, but if a cell parks itself over an area for a long period of time, it could add more weight and cohesion to these slabs. Veer away from northerly aspects if you observe lingering rainfall.

As you travel along ridges this time of year, be mindful of how close you get to the edge of large, overhanging cornices. These beasts sag a little more with each passing day in the spring and from the lack of freezing temperatures. When they cave off is next to impossible to predict, but stepping too far onto them can be all that’s needed. Cornice falling onto slopes below can provoke weird, atypical avalanche behavior in deeper layers that have gone dormant, and falling off the ridge with them poses its own hazard in and of itself.

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IPAC is now on the Avy app! View, submit, and share observations on the go using the AvyApp. Your backcountry observations are critical for building our avalanche forecasts. Avy provides a centralized location for core trip planning, and you can view streamlined, up-to-date avalanche and weather forecasts for your selected zone, using offline caching. Download Avy today - App Store and Google Play.

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