Lawinenlagebericht

Lawinenlagebericht

Payette Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

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

Kernpunkte

The Avalanche Hazard throughout the West Central Mountains isLow today. Our snowpack has gained strength this past week. Triggering deeper buried weak layers is getting hard, but is not impossible.

Don't forget that Low hazard does not mean no hazard. We are in a low probability/high consequence scenerio...Safe travel protocols like exposing only one person at a time to avalanche terrain, keeping your eyes on your partners, and carrying a beacon shovel and probe in your backpack are very important. 

Lawinenprobleme

  • Deep Persistent Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Unlikely
    Größe
    1–2

    This problem wont quite go away. Hence the name persistent....Februay's storm cycles created weak layers like surface hoar and near surface facets in between storms that were responsible for widespread natural and human triggered avalanches. The last reported human triggered avalanche was a couple of weeks ago. Our snowpack has gotten deep (over 10 feet in most places above 7,00 feet), and has put  a couple of strong layers of 1 finger to pencil hard snow above these weak layers.  Triggering these weak layers has become difficult at this point, but not impossible.  Most slopes are deep and uniform which fair unlikely as areas to tigger weak layers, but in areas like rocky windward shoulders, ridges, or faces of peaks that are shallower due to wind scouring are stil suspect as most likely trigger points.

    Right now the chances of triggering a deep weak layer are low, but with the consequences as high as they are if you do trigger an avalanche in our mid pack, it should make you think aout the terrain you select and how you ultimately aproach and travel through avalanche terrain, or slopes steeper than 30 degrees with consequences or exposure.  You could have a lot of snow coming down the hill...Think about where the snow might flow if it slid, and where would it take you?  

    Just under 10 feet of snow...on Saturday North of Brundage Mountain Resort, on a NW aspect of Sgt's Mountain.

Avalanche Discussion

This past weeks warm temps and Sun along with time, have helped to strengthen the snowpack. Buried weak layers are still showing up in test pits but with no to hard results. Now all aspects that get Sun have a crust that formed on the snow surface about an inch thick. Soft powder survived on Northern aspects.  The inch or so of snow we got Saturday put some sweet icing on the cake. Slick crusts might be challening for the snow to bond to.   Friday, we saw a lot of risky tracks on steep upper elevation slopes from riders like side-hilling uderneath big cornices on Northern big terrain. Hopefully these folks were watching their partners and were all equpped with first aid and avalanche rescue gear. Take the time to travel cautiously in and around steep terrain so that if something does happen it is minimized.    Keep practicing good, safe travel protocols durning our low probability/high consequence scenero. Check your aspect and slope angle regularly...Are you in avalanche terrain, and carrying a transciever, shovel and probe in your backpack?... Across the U. S. we have had 33 avalanche fatalities so far this year.  

If you see or trigger avalanche activity, please take the time to snap a picture and note the approximate elevation and aspect, you can submit an observation on our website. Getting your info helps forecasters and other users get a better picture of the conditions throughout our mountains. If you have trouble using our observations page, please email us at: [email protected]

  Please be mindful of other users in the mountains, and where you are at. There are closures for motorized travel in and around the local ski areas, in the Lick Creek Canyon,  Granite Mtn, Jug Mountain, and other areas throughout our region.  Check out the Winter Travel Map to find out where you can shred on your sled or moto.  Not all of these areas are signed, it is your responsibility to know where these closures exist.