Lawinenlagebericht

Selkirk Mountains

Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Sat
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 6 months ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

You could trigger a large avalanche that fails on weak layers buried 1 to 2 feet below the surface on slopes around 35 degrees. The likelihood of provoking a failure increases on west through north to east-facing slopes that have received less sun and warmth recently. Build in a wider margin of safety if traveling on, adjacent to, or below steeper slopes, and favor more southerly-facing slopes to help reduce your avalanche risk.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Persistent Slabs

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

    Slabs that are 1 to 2 feet thick sit on top of weak layers that consist of surface hoar, facets and hard crusts. Incremental snowfall since January 28 has slowly buried these weak layers creating a concerning weak snowpack structure. The distribution of these buried weak layers varies slightly between the Silver Valley-Bitterroots and the northern mountains in the Selkirks and West Cabinets. This slight variation is due to differences in rain/snow elevations, snowfall totals, and southerly, sun exposed aspects and warm temperatures.  The potential for a human to trigger a large dangerous avalanche on these weak layers should steer decision making while remembering persistent slabs are difficult to assess and predict.

    Surface hoar on top of a crust with weak facets below the crust all sitting below a consolidating slab. This is a bad recipe for recreating in steeper terrain. West Cabinet Mountains. February 5, 2026.

    Photo: Chris Bilbrey

Avalanche Discussion

Mountain snowfall during the past week has been a welcome change, especially in the southern mountains, where around a foot of recent snow has been reported near the highest peaks. The past few days have brought the return of calm and clear weather and with that, the concerns within the new snow have diminished. However, we are in a holding pattern with our pesky persistent slab problem, which isn’t expected to go away any time soon.

Field teams have been covering a lot of ground lately, trying to tease out any patterns in the weak layer type and distribution so that we can offer sound travel advice and tips for navigating the tricky conditions. We know that the problem exists above about 5,500 feet in many locations, and that in places where the overlying slab is 1 to 2 feet thick, a human might trigger a large dangerous avalanche. However, we are slowly gaining confidence in more southerly aspects, where you can find a hard supportable crust between you and the weak layer. The chances of triggering an avalanche are greater in places where this crust either does not exist at all or is thin enough to break under the weight of a person or a machine. Generally, these more worrisome slopes can be found on all aspects except due south and southwest.

Our confidence starts to diminish again as we climb into terrain higher than about 6500 feet. Benign weather the past few days has allowed field teams to cautiously start venturing into these higher reaches, but we presently still lack sufficient data to confidently rule out very much terrain up there. The exception to this is in the southern mountains, where due to a variety of factors, we have felt confident enough to remove the persistent slab problem from south and southwest facing slopes at all elevations.

If you find yourself out and about today or tomorrow enjoying the sunshine today and make your way above 6,500 feet, please consider submitting an observation to let us know what your seeing up there. This information will be highly valuable to the forecast team as we approach our next period of stormy weather this weekend.

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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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