Avalanche forecast

Sawtooth & Western Smoky Mtns

Sawtooth Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 8 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Triggering an avalanche is most likely in wind affected terrain as you move up in elevation. Avoid slopes with stiff, wind-drifted snow at the surface. Triggering a huge, 3-6 foot thick slab avalanche is unlikely, but not out of the question. 

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    Recent strong winds formed cohesive slabs up to 3 feet thick in upper and some middle elevation locations. Watch for smooth pillows, dunes, and large wind features below ridgelines as well as on the sides of cross-loaded gullies. Harder slabs may feel hollow and sound like a drum as you move across them. 

    Thankfully, wind slabs are generally easy to identify and avoid. Feeling for stiff snow under your boards or machine, and cracks shooting out ahead of you, are an obvious sign that you've found a wind slab. Hard wind slabs behave unpredictably; they can break above you and wider than expected.

    (12/28/2025)

    A natural large wind slab avalanche and widespread wind-affected snow surfaces up in the Southern Sawtooth Range.

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Unlikely
    Size
    2–3

    The highest odds of triggering Persistent Slab avalanches lies where you find concerning buried layers AND significant recent wind-loading. Multiple crusts and storm interfaces are buried in the upper 3 feet of the snowpack on many slopes, providing possible failure layers. 

    Triggering a large deep slide is unlikely, but not off the table. Assume the slab + weak layer setup exists on all slopes until you dig in the snow to prove otherwise. You probably won't experience obvious signs of instability—like snowpack collapsing or cracks shooting out from your skis or sled—before triggering an avalanche. 

    As you change elevation and aspect, or travel through different drainages, you'll see significant variability in the buried crusts and storm interfaces. This uncertainty makes it challenging to accurately predict which slopes could still cause trouble. 

    Additional Discussion: Weak, sugary, faceted snow near the bottom of the snowpack is now buried 4-8 feet deep on W-NW-N-NE-E-SE facing slopes at middle and upper elevations. Triggering a huge slide on these layers is unlikely but would be unsurvivable. The best chance of poking this beast lies in windy and/or rocky areas where the snowpack depth is variable or thinner, and near the mouths of the drainages near Smiley Creek.

    (12/28/2025)

    Paradise Peak and West Fork Big Creek large natural avalanches

    Photo: Sawtooth Avalanche Center

Avalanche Discussion

Recent winds have played a major role in most of the avalanches we've observed in this zone over the past few days. Above about 8500', look for hard slabs, scoured slopes, and overbuilt wind whales in exposed terrain. The snowpack is expected to behave unpredictably in these windier environments.

You may want to be a little more cautious if you are playing in the thinner snowpacks in the headwaters of the Salmon River and Frenchman Ck drainages, near the mouths of Smiley and Beaver Ck, and on the eastern front of the Sawtooth Mtns. In these areas, there's a better chance recent winds loaded some slopes enough to keep the waning Persistent Slab problem alive. 

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